When you get a SmartMachine, the preinstalled software is available in the /opt/local directory. The software in this directory was built with pkgsrc, a centralized package management originally developed for NetBSD.

In this page:

Installing Sofware

There are two ways to insall software on your Smart Machine. The easiest way is to use pkgin to install the software form the Joyent pkgsrc repository.

The other way is to compile the software from source. This is the traditional way to install software, but it takes longer and requires more configuration.

Installing Software From a Package

SmartMachines use a package manager called pkgsrc to manage the installation of software. If you are familiar with Debian or Redhat Linux, pkgsrc is similar to apt, rpm, or yum. Joyent maintains a repository of packages that you can install on your SmartMachines using pkgin.

This table lists the common pkgin commands.

You need to run the commands that install software or update the package database as the root user or as admin using sudo.

For example, to install tidy, you run this:

Compiling Software From Source

If the software you want to use isn't available as a prebuilt package, you can compile it from source. Typically, you'll get a tarball that contains the software you want to install. After you unpack the tarball, the readme file will contain instructions for compiling the software.

For example, to install the lastest version of Ruby on your SmartMachine, you would use the following commands. Note that we're using the GNU versions of tar and make.