ok, I seem to have gotten it working by doing this:

1. fix the /usr/pkgsrc/pkgtools/pkg_install/Makefile by changing the line
PREFIX:=                ${PKG_TOOLS_BIN:C|/[^/]?bin$||
to
PREFIX:=                ${PKG_TOOLS_BIN}:C|/[^/]?bin$||

2. make from /usr/pkgsrc/pkgtools/pkg_install

3. cd to /usr/pkgsrc/pkgtools/pkg_install/work/pkg_install-20030111 and do 
a "make install" there

4. find the resulting binaries in /usr/pkg/sbin and move them to /usr/sbin

it's working for now...
         -Matt

At 10:38 PM 1/12/2003 -0500, Jan Schaumann wrote:
>Matt Wong <mew20@columbia.edu> wrote:
>
> > make continues and does not exit with an error, but the pkg_* tools 
> remains
> > un-updated. Any advice?
>
>Update your pkgsrc files to at least rev 1.69 - this version fixes the
>problem at hand (an missing'}'), I think.
>
>-Jan
>
>--
>I always said there was something fundamentally wrong with the universe.