{"slug": "pkgsrc", "name": "pkgsrc", "category": "dev-libs", "category_name": "Libraries and frameworks", "description": "", "recommenders": 3, "commenters": 7, "warners": 0, "score": 3.63, "rising": 0.35, "first": "2025-12-22", "latest": "2026-10-19", "why": "That would be great for mac people if my wild guess is correct.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 4, "neutral": 3, "compare": 1, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 2, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "That would be great for mac people if my wild guess is correct.", "kind": "", "icon": true, "domain": "pkgsrc.org", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://www.pkgsrc.org/", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["pkgsrc"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 802360336, "item_id": 50147521, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50147521", "by": "jmclnx", "date": "2026-10-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "That would be great for mac people if my wild guess is correct.", "excerpt": "As a NetBSD user, I would guess it is for use with pkgsrc. That would be great for mac people if my wild guess is correct. http://pkgsrc.org/", "context": "NetBSD user", "use_case": "Cross-platform package manager", "switched_from": "", "story": "What the heck is /pkg?"}, {"id": 747374434, "item_id": 46710902, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46710902", "by": "eduction", "date": "2026-01-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "package management with pkgsrc is great", "excerpt": "I use it for a home server. Zones provides a secure way to have (on one physical machine with one physical network interface) some stuff you can only get to on the local network and some things you can get to over the public internet and some things via internet if you have the right ssh key. Each contained natively from each other. Crossbow firewall provides a nice way to contain traffic securely as well. ZFS let me", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "SmartOS"}, {"id": 741676176, "item_id": 46354761, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46354761", "by": "eduction", "date": "2025-12-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "pkgsrc is great", "excerpt": "pkgsrc is great, I use this on smartos (as just an end user) and it\u2019s extremely straightforward", "context": "end user, not a maintainer", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Debian's Git Transition"}, {"id": 741670144, "item_id": 46354384, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46354384", "by": "rjsw", "date": "2025-12-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "They could take a look at how pkgsrc [1] works.", "excerpt": "They could take a look at how pkgsrc [1] works. [1] https://www.pkgsrc.org/", "context": "", "use_case": "package building and publishing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Debian's Git Transition"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [{"by": "jmclnx", "context": "NetBSD user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50147521", "date": "2026-10-19"}, {"by": "eduction", "context": "end user, not a maintainer", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46354761", "date": "2025-12-22"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["cross-platform package manager", "building i386 software", "package building and publishing"], "compared": [{"slug": "smartos", "name": "SmartOS", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46352231", "title": "Debian's Git Transition", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50143154", "title": "What the heck is /pkg?", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49694311", "title": "Pkgsrc Is Cool (2022)", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48490024", "title": "Homebrew 6.0.0", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47400413", "title": "item 47400413", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46866544", "title": "Floppinux \u2013 An Embedded Linux on a Single Floppy, 2025 Edition", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {"recommend": 2}, "2026-01": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-02": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-03": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {"compare": 1}, "2026-10": {"recommend": 1}}, "quotes": [{"id": 802360336, "item_id": 50147521, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50147521", "by": "jmclnx", "date": "2026-10-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "That would be great for mac people if my wild guess is correct.", "excerpt": "As a NetBSD user, I would guess it is for use with pkgsrc. That would be great for mac people if my wild guess is correct. http://pkgsrc.org/", "context": "NetBSD user", "use_case": "Cross-platform package manager", "switched_from": "", "story": "What the heck is /pkg?"}, {"id": 795213873, "item_id": 49700867, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49700867", "by": "tgamblin", "date": "2026-09-14", "stance": "compare", "quote": "You can do that with pkgsrc using external tools like Bob", "excerpt": "Spack, at least, is also very much at home outside the HPC environment. Works on macOS and Windows (though Windows packages aren't quite as mature as Linux and macOS). Doesn't require environment modules to use. Also, latest Spack builds in parallel. You can do that with pkgsrc using external tools like Bob [1], but Spack sets up a GNU jobserver, which LLVM and ninja now support in addition to gmake. So you get very ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Pkgsrc Is Cool (2022)"}, {"id": 775951520, "item_id": 48496970, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48496970", "by": "jperkin", "date": "2026-06-11", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "It's still a thing", "excerpt": "It's still a thing: https://pkgsrc.smartos.org/install-on-macos/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Homebrew 6.0.0"}, {"id": 758407248, "item_id": 47400453, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47400453", "by": "jen20", "date": "2026-03-16", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "https://www.netbsd.org/docs/pkgsrc/bulk.html", "excerpt": "Ah right, that doesn\u2019t have binary distribution at all. Oh wait [1]. [1]: https://www.netbsd.org/docs/pkgsrc/bulk.html", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": null}, {"id": 750077425, "item_id": 46879839, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46879839", "by": "1vuio0pswjnm7", "date": "2026-02-03", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I still compile software for i386 from pkgsrc", "excerpt": "\"There is a herculean effort on the part of package maintainers to build software for distros, and no one has been building 32 bit version of software for years, even if it is possible to build from source.\" This statement must be Linux-only Pre-compiled packages for i386 are still available for all versions of NetBSD including the current one I still compile software for i386 from pkgsrc https://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/p", "context": "", "use_case": "Building i386 software", "switched_from": "", "story": "Floppinux \u2013 An Embedded Linux on a Single Floppy, 2025 Edition"}, {"id": 747374434, "item_id": 46710902, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46710902", "by": "eduction", "date": "2026-01-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "package management with pkgsrc is great", "excerpt": "I use it for a home server. Zones provides a secure way to have (on one physical machine with one physical network interface) some stuff you can only get to on the local network and some things you can get to over the public internet and some things via internet if you have the right ssh key. Each contained natively from each other. Crossbow firewall provides a nice way to contain traffic securely as well. ZFS let me", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "SmartOS"}, {"id": 741676176, "item_id": 46354761, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46354761", "by": "eduction", "date": "2025-12-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "pkgsrc is great", "excerpt": "pkgsrc is great, I use this on smartos (as just an end user) and it\u2019s extremely straightforward", "context": "end user, not a maintainer", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Debian's Git Transition"}, {"id": 741670144, "item_id": 46354384, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46354384", "by": "rjsw", "date": "2025-12-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "They could take a look at how pkgsrc [1] works.", "excerpt": "They could take a look at how pkgsrc [1] works. [1] https://www.pkgsrc.org/", "context": "", "use_case": "package building and publishing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Debian's Git Transition"}]}