Title: Managing OpenBSD installed packages declaratively

	Title: Managing OpenBSD installed packages declaratively
	Author: Solène
	Date: 05 May 2022
	Tags: openbsd
	Description: I wrote a simple utility to manage my packages using a
	configuration file, installed missing packages and removing the extra
	ones

	# Introduction

	I wrote a simple utility to manage OpenBSD packages on a system using a
	declarative way.

	pkgset git repository

	Instead of running many pkg_add or pkg_delete commands to manage my
	packages, now I can use a configuration file (allowing includes) to
	define which package should be installed, and the installed but not
	listed packages should be removed.

	After using NixOS too long, it's a must have for me to manage packages
	this way.

	# How does it work?

	pkgset works by marking extra packages as "auto installed" (the
	opposite is manually installed, see pkg_info -m), and by installing
	missing packages. After those steps, pkgset runs "pkg_delete -a" to
	remove unused packages (the one marked as auto installed) if they are
	not a dependency of another required package.

	# How to install?

	The installation is easy, download the sources and run make install as
	root, it will install pkgset and its man page on your system.

	```shell commands
	$ git clone https://tildegit.org/solene/pkgset.git
	$ cd pkgset
	$ doas make install
	```

	# Configuration file example

	Here is the /etc/pkgset.conf file on my laptop.

	```configuration file
	borgbackup--%1.2
	bwm-ng
	fish
	fzf
	git
	git-annex
	gnupg
	godot
	kakoune
	musikcube
	ncdu
	rlwrap
	sbcl
	vim--no_x11
	vlc
	xclip
	xfce
	xfce-extras
	yacreader
	```

	# Limitations

	The only "issue" with pkgset is that for some packages that "pkg_add"
	may find ambiguous due to multiples versions or favors available
	without a default one, you must define the exact package version/flavor
	you want to install.

	# Risks

	If you use it incorrectly, running pkgset doesn't have more risks than
	losing some or all installed packages.

	# Why not use pkg_add -l ?

	I know pkg_add as an option to install packages from a list, but it
	won't remove the extra packages. I may look at adding the "pkgset"
	feature to pkg_add one day maybe.