---
name: "pkg_check-problems"
section: "1"
platform: "openbsd"
package: "man"
version: "8.0-current-20261101"
release: "OpenBSD 8.0-current (2026-11-01)"
platforms: ["openbsd"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/pkg_check-problems"
---

# pkg\_check-problems(1)

verify problems in package collections

## NAME

**pkg\_check-problems** – verify problems in package collections

## SYNOPSIS

**pkg\_check-problems** \[**-CDesv**\] \[**-d** *plist\_dir*\] \[**-o** *output*\] \[**-p** *ports\_dir*\] \[*pkgname* *...*\]

## DESCRIPTION

**pkg\_check-problems** is used to check a collection of packages for problems that cannot be noticed in individual packages, such as conflict and directory registration issues.

A conflict is a file that belongs to two distinct packages.

By default, packages with the same stem( see [packages-specs(7)](/packages-specs/7.md)) are registered to conflict. This can be changed to add or remove extra conflict registration with **@option** **no-default-conflict** or **@conflict**( see [pkg\_create(1)](/pkg_create/1.md)).

Conflicts between packages mean that a user can't have both packages installed at the same time. In some cases (same software, different version), this is expected, but the packages should be marked as conflicting, so that pkg\_add(1) knows how to deal with it. In other cases, this is an oversight from the ports maintainer, and action should be taken to make sure both packages can be installed simultaneously. Conflicts also interact with dependencies, and sometimes a missing dependency will show up as an unregistered conflict.

Directories can belong to distinct packages, as long as they are registered somewhere. Every directory that is not part of the standard [mtree(8)](/mtree/8.md) set should appear in a packing-list somewhere.

Contrary to files, directories can be shared between several packages.

**pkg\_check-problems** knows enough about packages to trace directories back to a common dependency, or to not flag two packages as conflicting when they depend on already conflicting packages.

**pkg\_check-problems** requires a set of packing-lists to operate, which it can obtain from several sources. The preferred source is the packing-list databases( see *PACKAGE\_REPOSITORY* in [bsd.port.mk(5)](/bsd.port.mk/5.md) and [register-plist(1)](/register-plist/1.md)), as it persists over time and can be used to fix update information as well as current version information.

It should be supplemented with the ports tree itself in order to figure out current versions.

Options are as follows:

- **-C**

  Do not compute conflict information.

- **-D**

  Do not compute common dir information.

- **-e**

  Check for extra logical conflicts, by adding supplementary formatted/unformatted manpages, as same name manpages under the same base directory will shadow one another.

- **-o** *output*

  Save results to output file as well as writing it on the screen.

- **-s**

  Be silent.

- **-v**

  Be verbose.

- **-d** *plist-dir*

  Scan directory *plist-dir* for packing-lists.

- **-p** *portsdir*

  Traverse the ports directory for packing-lists, using *print-plist-all*. More than one directory could be specified by delimiting them by colon, e.g.: */usr/ports/x11/kde:/usr/ports/x11/kde4*.

  If **-d** *plist-dir* is also used, traverse only the directories corresponding to the packages under *plist-dir* to figure out current pkgnames, and annotate those with a ‘!’ in the report.

## SAMPLE OUTPUT

```
Dependency not found zarafa-webaccess-7.1.11p2
Dependency not found kwebkitpart-1.2p3
[...]
Common dirs:
!claws-mail-gdata-3.11.1p1-ldap(mail/claws-mail,-gdata,ldap): /usr/local/lib/claws-mail
!claws-mail-pdfviewer-3.11.1p1-ldap(mail/claws-mail,-pdfviewer,ldap): /usr/local/lib/claws-mail
[...]
Conflicts:
!arm-none-eabi-gdb-7.9.1(devel/arm-none-eabi/gdb),!gdb-7.9.1(devel/gdb)
	/usr/local/include/gdb/jit-reader.h
	/usr/local/share/gdb/system-gdbinit/elinos.py
	/usr/local/share/gdb/system-gdbinit/wrs-linux.py
!libnet-1.0.2ap0v0(net/libnet/1.0),libnet-1.0.2ap2(net/libnet/1.0),libnet-1.0.2av0(net/libnet/1.0)
	/usr/local/bin/libnet-config-1.0
	/usr/local/include/libnet-1.0/libnet.h
	/usr/local/include/libnet-1.0/libnet/libnet-asn1.h
	/usr/local/include/libnet-1.0/libnet/libnet-functions.h
	/usr/local/include/libnet-1.0/libnet/libnet-headers.h
	/usr/local/include/libnet-1.0/libnet/libnet-macros.h
	/usr/local/include/libnet-1.0/libnet/libnet-ospf.h
	/usr/local/include/libnet-1.0/libnet/libnet-structures.h
	/usr/local/lib/libnet-1.0/libnet.a
	/usr/local/lib/libnet-1.0/libnet.so.0.0
	/usr/local/lib/libnet-1.0/libpwrite.a
	/usr/local/lib/libnet.so.0.0
	/usr/local/man/cat3/libnet.0
[...]
zathura-pdf-mupdf-0.2.7(textproc/zathura/plugins/mupdf),zathura-pdf-poppler-0.2.5(textproc/zathura/plugins/poppler)
	/usr/local/lib/zathura/pdf.so
```

- Dependency not found: means some package names could not be found. Most often happens because of panic issues, and fsck not recovering some dependency files.

- claws-mail directory: missing directory registration. **pkg\_check-problems** could not find a common ancestor to claws-mail-gdata and claws-mail-pdfviewer, so it should be added to both.

- Conflict between arm-non-eabi-gdb and gdb: note that both packages are current. Two choices: either remove the offending files from one package (might break the other), or mark an explicit conflict between the packages (will prevent people from installing both at the same time).

- Conflict between libnet-...v0 and libnet: Note that only the v0 version is current. People forgot to augment the **@option** **no-default-conflict** with conflicts against the old version when bumping the *EPOCH*.

## SEE ALSO

pkg\_add(1), [pkg\_create(1)](/pkg_create/1.md), [bsd.port.mk(5)](/bsd.port.mk/5.md), [packages-specs(7)](/packages-specs/7.md)