I used installpkg and specified a different filesystem as the root. It seems that the other pkg stuff does not take the --root option. I looked at the pkgtool script and it takes an option for targetdir, which seems the same thing, but if you specify it pkgtool does nothing except appear to hang.

How can I get the other pkg type tools to recognize and work with the alternate root?

Hmmm... First of all, I don't think there is an "alternate" root. There is only "/"... ?

If you'd like to use "installpkg" with the "targetdir" option, you may need to create "targetdir" first...

Furthermore, there is usually no reason to mess up with "installpkg", since its default choices are pretty good.

If you really, really, really need to install xyz in a very specific directory, your best bet is to download the source code, "configure" it with the directory you want and do a make/make install. This should install xyz in the directory you want.

Sorry if this is not the answer you want, but your question is a little bit confusing for me...

First, installpkg has a -root option that lets you install a package to somehting like /p2 or whatever. The problem I had was that my inital root was too small and I wanted to install more stuff, so I used this.

It seems most stuff doesn't install well unless it is installed in "/", which sucks. But, now that I have installed stuff in /p2, I want to uninstall some stuff. The other tools don't seem to have complimentary options to -root