Sets

Sets are short forms for collections of packages. They are roughly equivalent to specifying that same list of packages on the command line, however packages within a set will not be selected if installing using a set, and the set itself will be selected.

You can refer to a set using @, followed by the set name.

E.g. portmod <prefix> merge -uDN @world, or portmod <prefix> merge @rebuild.

The builtin sets include:

  • world: Equivalent to selected + system

  • system: Packages required by the profile which cannot be removed.

  • selected: Equivalent to selected-sets + selected-packages

  • selected-sets: User-selected sets (not including builtin sets).

  • selected-packages: The user-selected list of packages. This includes any package you have explicitly installed (i.e. installed without the --oneshot/-1 option). It does not include dependencies which were installed implicitly. This is usually the only set you need to interact with.

  • modules: This is an internal convenience set which is used to refer to portmod Modules.

  • rebuild: Packages are added to this set automatically for certain unusual packages when they are determined to need to be rebuilt. A warning message will be displayed when you need to use this set.

You can also create custom sets

Module Sets

Added in Portmod 2.4

Sets created in the var/sets directory within the prefix will be used first when looking up sets. This allows portmod modules to create and manage their own sets. Module-created sets always have priority over sets.