On Wed, 14 Mar 2001, Jun-ichiro itojun Hagino wrote:

> 	until recently, I did not know the following things:
> 	- by setting $PKG_PATH, pkg_add will pull compiled binary packages
> 	  from ftp server automagically
> 	- pkg_add can add compiled binary packages recursively

Now I don't feel so bad. I asked some questions about recursively
installing binary packages last year and never received any answers. Then
a few months ago I learned about that feature. It sure saves a lot of
time.

> 	i believe these features are too cool, and i believe users need
> 	to be informed better about these!

I agree. About once a month, I read a question about recursively
installing dependencies and no one seems to answer.

Before I thought that the pkg_add manual page seemed a little unclear:
"Any dependencies required by the installed package will be searched in
the same location that the original package was installed from." It seems
like it would not really do recursive dependency installs. But now it
does:

$ pkg_add ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/packages/1.5/i386/All/xmms-1.0.1.tgz
setenv PKG_PATH='ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/packages/1.5/i386/All'

Pretty cool. It sets the PKG_PATH for you.

The description for pkg_add is very vague. Maybe it should say something
like:

DESCRIPTION
     The pkg_add command is used to install NetBSD packages.  Packages are
     prepared collections of pre-built binaries, documentation, configura-
     tions, installation instructions and/or other files.  pkg_add can 
     recursively install other packages that the current package depends on
     or requires.  pkg_add works with packages that are created with the
     pkg_create(1) command.

Does this sound okay? Any improvements? 

Then, I'll send-pr it.

--- /usr/share/man/man1/pkg_add.1       Fri Mar  9 22:42:03 2001
+++ pkg_add.1   Tue Mar 13 09:07:30 2001
@@ -35,9 +35,15 @@
 .Ar
\fR[ftp://[\fIuser\fR[:\fIpassword]\fR@]\fIhost\fR[:\fIport\fR]][/\fIpath/\fR]pkg-name
...
 .Sh DESCRIPTION
 The
+.Nm     
+command is used to install NetBSD packages.
+Packages are prepared collections of pre-built binaries, documentation,
+configurations, installation instructions and/or other files.
 .Nm
-command is used to extract packages that have been previously created
-with the
+can recursively install other packages that the current package
+depends on or requires.
+.Nm 
+works with packages that are created with the       
 .Xr pkg_create 1
 command.

   Jeremy C. Reed
   http://www.reedmedia.net/