On Mon, 6 May 2002, Rohan Nicholls wrote:

> I am used to using the debian packaging system, and am trying to get
> stuck in my head how the netbsd system is different, I am also new to
> *nix systems which I am sure is not helping at all.:)
>
> With Netbsd, are you always downloading and installing from source? just

No. You can choose to use pre-built packages.

> with the packages the configuration has already been set up?  Does this

Yes.

> also mean that there is very little difference between installing from
> source and installing the packages?

Yes, very little difference.

A Debian package is usually installed by setting up your APT sources list
(to point to URLs of repository), then run "apt-get update" to gather list
of available packages (and dependencies and versions), and then "apt-get
install PACKAGE-NAME".

With NetBSD, you can use the "pkg_add" command to fetch and install a
binary package (and it automatically installs needed dependencies). You
can also set your PKG_PATH variable to list the locations to find
packages. Have a look at the pkg_add manual page.

Have fun with NetBSD!

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