Date: Fri, 3 Oct 2014 11:54:36 +0100 From: TonyMc <afmcc@btinternet.com> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: pkg upgrade question .... Message-ID: <20141003115436.70a5446a@elena.home> In-Reply-To: <542D601F.1030104@hiwaay.net> References: <542D601F.1030104@hiwaay.net>
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On Thu, 02 Oct 2014 09:24:31 -0500 "William A. Mahaffey III" <wam@hiwaay.net> wrote: > > > .... I converted from using linux-f10 to using linux-c6 for linux > compatibility earlier this week. There were no linux-c6 pkg's, so I > used ports to do that install, & I also 'pkg delete'-ed all of > linux-f10 in the process. I just did a 'pkg upgrade -y' & it deleted > all of the installed linux-c6 stuff & reinstalled linux-f10 !!!! I > would like to believe this was pilot error, but that is getting to be > a bit of a stretch .... I can & will manually clean up the mess, but > WTF is going on here w/ pkg ? That behavior is 100% counter-intuitive > to me, bug ? > > Dear William, this was indeed pilot error. You should get into the habit of reading /usr/ports/UPDATING. The relevant entry states (22 Sep.): "The complete drop-in replacement linux-c6 port infrastructure is in ports and will shortly replace the current linux-f10- ports as default." The "will shortly" is key there. The ports system makes software available for you to compile and install. You can start using linux-c6 ports before they become the default, but you must understand that that is your decision, and by doing so you are departing from "the default". If you then try to "pkg upgrade" pkg will install the most recently available packages for the ports you have installed. Since there are no linux-c6 packages available yet (though presumably it will not be long), pkg resolved your software dependencies on linux emulation using linux-f10 packages, which were available. If you had waited until linux-c6 became the default, you would have been fine. I have read a number of your messages over the last few weeks and it seems to me you still have a problem grasping the relationship between ports and packages. (I hope I have not misunderstood you.) You need to understand that ports are recipes for configuring, building and installing software (usually involving compilation, linking and installation), while packages are recipes for adding already-configured-and-built software to your system. The "already" part of that description means that someone, somewhere has to have done the configuration, compilation and linking steps. That takes a finite time. When multiplied by the number of available ports (more than 20,000) you can see why the availability of packages lags behind the availability of the recipes in the ports tree. I hope that helps. I suggest you choose between ports and packages (there are exceptions for some programs, for which you really need non-default options). If you prefer to use the newest version as soon as it becomes available, and you can live with the work of choosing configuration options, building and installing, you need to use ports. But if you can wait a few days and accept the default options, pkg upgrade will make your life a lot easier. Just as an aside: you seem very keen to use linux emulation on FreeBSD. Why is that? What are you missing that requires the compatibility layer? Best, Tony
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