pkg_info —
a utility for displaying information on software packages
  
    | pkg_info | [ -BbcDdFfhIikLmNnpqRrSsVvX]
      [-Epkg-name]
      [-epkg-name]
      [-Kpkg_dbdir]
      [-lprefix]
      pkg-name ... | 
  
    | pkg_info | [ -a|-u] [flags] | 
  
    | pkg_info | [ -Qvariable]
      pkg-name ... | 
The pkg_info command is used to dump out information for
  packages, which may be either packed up in files or already installed on the
  system with the
  pkg_create(1) command.
The pkg-name may be the name of an installed
    package (with or without version), a pattern matching several installed
    packages (see the PACKAGE
    WILDCARDS section for a description of possible patterns), the pathname
    to a binary package, a filename belonging to an installed package (with
    -F), or a URL to an FTP-available package.
The following command line options are available:
  - -a
- Show information for all currently installed packages. See also
      -u. When neither-anor-uis given, the former is assumed.
- -B
- Show some of the important definitions used when building the binary
      package (the “Build information”) for each package.
      Additionally, any installation information variables (lowercase) can be
      queried, too. In particular, automatic tells if a
      package was installed automatically as a dependency of another
    package.
- -b
- Show the NetBSD RCS Id strings from the files used
      in the construction of the binary package (the “Build
      version”) for each package. These files are the package Makefile,
      any patch files, any checksum files, and the packing list file.
- -c
- Show the one-line comment field for each package.
- -D
- Show the install-message file (if any) for each package.
- -d
- Show the long-description field for each package.
- -Epkg-name
- This option allows you to test for the existence of a given package. If a
      package identified by pkg-name is currently
      installed, return code is 0, otherwise 1. The name of the best matching
      package found installed is printed to stdout unless turned off using the
      -qoption. pkg-name can
      contain wildcards (see the PACKAGE
      WILDCARDS section below).
- -epkg-name
- This option allows you to test for the existence of a given package. If a
      package identified by pkg-name is currently
      installed, return code is 0, otherwise 1. The names of any package(s)
      found installed are printed to stdout unless turned off using the
      -qoption. pkg-name can
      contain wildcards (see the PACKAGE
      WILDCARDS section below).
- -F
- Interpret any pkg-name given as filename, and query
      information on the package that file belongs to. This can be used to query
      information on a per-file basis. See the
      TECHNICAL DETAILS section
      below for more information.
- -f
- Show the packing list instructions for each package.
- -h
- Print usage message and exit.
- -I
- Show the index entry for each package. This option is assumed when no
      arguments or relevant flags are specified.
- -i
- Show the install script (if any) for each package.
- -Kpkg_dbdir
- Override the value of the PKG_DBDIRconfiguration
      option with the value pkg_dbdir.
- -k
- Show the de-install script (if any) for each package.
- -L
- Show the files within each package. This is different from just viewing
      the packing list, since full pathnames for everything are generated. Files
      that were created dynamically during installation of the package are not
      listed.
- -lprefix
- Prefix each information category header (see -q)
      shown with prefix. This is primarily of use to
      front-end programs that want to request a lot of different information
      fields at once for a package, but don't necessary want the output
      intermingled in such a way that they can't organize it. This lets you add
      a special token to the start of each field.
- -m
- Show the mtree file (if any) for each package.
- -N
- Show which packages each package was built with (exact dependencies), if
      any.
- -n
- Show which packages each package needs (depends upon), if any.
- -p
- Show the installation prefix for each package.
- -Qvariable
- Show the definition of variable from the build
      information for each package. An empty string is returned if no such
      variable definition is found for the package(s).
- -q
- Be “quiet” in emitting report headers and such, just dump
      the raw info (basically, assume a non-human reading).
- -R
- For each package, show the packages that require it.
- -r
- For each package, show the packages that require it. Continue recursively
      to show all dependents.
- -S
- Show the size of this package and all the packages it requires, in
    bytes.
- -s
- Show the size of this package in bytes. The size is calculated by adding
      up the size of each file of the package.
- -u
- Show information for all user-installed packages: automatically installed
      packages (as dependencies of other packages) are not displayed. See also
      -a.
- -V
- Print version number and exit.
- -v
- Turn on verbose output.
- -X
- Print summary information for each package. The summary format is
      described in
      pkg_summary(5). Its
      primary use is to contain all information about the contents of a (remote)
      binary package repository needed by package managing software.
Package info is either extracted from package files named on the command line,
  or from already installed package information in
  <PKG_DBDIR>/<pkg-name>.When the -F option is used, a filename can
    be given instead of a package name to query information on the (installed)
    package that file belongs to. The filename is resolved to a package name
    using the package database. The filename must be absolute, as in the output
    of
pkg_info -aF.
For example,
pkg_info -Fe
  /path/to/file
can be used to display the package the given file belongs to, and
pkg_info -LF
  /path/to/file
can be used to display all files belonging to the package the given file belongs
  to.
In the places where a package name/version is expected, e.g., for the
  -e option, several forms can be used. Either use a
  package name with or without version, or specify a package wildcard that gets
  matched against all installed packages.
Package wildcards use
    fnmatch(3). In addition,
    csh(1) style {,} alternates have
    been implemented. Package version numbers can also be matched in a
    relational manner using the “≥”,
    “≤”, “>”, and “<”
    operators. For example,
pkg_info -e
  'name≥1.3'
will match versions 1.3 and later of the “name” package. (Make
  sure to use shell quoting.) Additionally, ranges can be defined, by giving
  both a lower bound (with “>” or “≥”) as
  well as an upper bound (with “<” or
  “≤”). The lower bound has to come first. For example,
pkg_info -e
  'name≥1.3<2.0'
will match versions 1.3 (inclusive) to 2.0 (exclusive) of package
  “name”.
The collating sequence of the various package version numbers is
    unusual, but strives to be consistent. The magic string
    “alpha” equates to “alpha version”, and sorts
    before a beta version. The magic string “beta” equates to
    “beta version”, and sorts before a release candidate. The
    magic string “rc” equates to “release
    candidate”, and sorts before a release. The magic string
    “pre”, short for “pre-release”, is a synonym for
    “rc”. For example, “name-1.3alpha2” will sort
    before “name-1.3beta1”, and they both sort before
    “name-1.3rc1”. Similarly, “name-1.3rc3” will
    sort before “name-1.3”, and after “name-1.2.9”.
    The magic string “pl” equates to “patch level”,
    and has the same value as a dot (‘.’) in the dewey-decimal
    ordering schemes, as does the underscore (‘_’). Additionally,
    alphabetic characters sort in the same place as their numeric counterparts,
    so that “name-1.2e” has the same sorting value as
    “name-1.2.5”.
  - Jordan Hubbard
- most of the work
- John Kohl
- refined it for NetBSD
- Hubert Feyrer
- NetBSD wildcard dependency processing, pkgdb,
      depends displaying, pkg size display, and more.