---
layout: post
title: "Setting up a private package repo for FreeBSD"
date: 2020-04-07
comments: true
tags: freebsd, pkgng
---

Lately the EU mirror for FreeBSD packages(<http://pkg0.bme.freebsd.org>) has been really slow for me. My best guess is the mirror is being overloaded, it could be because of my ISP peering weirdly too.

I already have a [Poudriere](https://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/ports-poudriere.html) setup running on a beefy server. How hard it would be building all the packages that I need? Turns out its not that hard at all.

First step is to get all the packages that I currently use and their port names

```bash
$ pkg query '%o' > x230-packages

# make sure they look right
$ head x230-packages
math/coinmp
x11-fonts/gentium-basic
graphics/ImageMagick6
devel/ORBit2
graphics/aalib
sysutils/accountsservice
print/adobe-cmaps
x11-themes/adwaita-icon-theme
x11/alacritty
audio/alsa-lib
```

Setup poudriere with instructions from handbook: <https://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/ports-poudriere.html>

Build the packages
```bash
/usr/local/bin/poudriere ports -p local -u
/usr/local/bin/poudriere bulk -j 12amd64 -p local -z x230 -f /root/x230-packages
```

After **a day and half** poudriere built all the packages I need :)

Now all that left is to disable the official repo and replace it with mine

```bash
cat > /usr/local/etc/pkg/repos/Mine.conf <<EOF
FreeBSD: { enabled: no }

builder: {
  url: "https://<path to repo>/repo/12amd64-local-x230/",
  enabled: yes
}
EOF
```
Bye bye slow mirrors!


This should be filed under over-engineering, and I should really investigate why the mirror is slow; This does work and love how simple and powerful the pkg system is. Workflow is far better than I am used to bulk building debian or arch packages.