[wplug-bsd] cvsup and portupgrade

Dan Pelleg daniel+wplug at pelleg.org
Mon May 24 17:56:40 EDT 2004


Daryl Clevenger <dlc+wplug-bsd at cs.cmu.edu> writes:

> Hello,
>
> % uname -v
> FreeBSD 4.9-RELEASE #0: Mon Oct 27 17:51:09 GMT 2003     root at freebsd-stable.sentex.ca:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC 
>
> After the hints and advice from 1.5 months ago, I decided to
> try and upgrade /usr/ports and some of the packages.  I appreciate
> everyones feedback.  All of it was very helpful.
>
> For various reasons, I would rather not compile anything.
>
> The results have been less than I expected.  I have not poked around the
> ftp site(s) to see what is really there.
>
> Here are the steps and results
>
> 1. cvsup -g -L 1 /root/sup/ports/supfile
> 3. portupgrade -PP -R -b -a
>
> --->  Checking the availability of the latest package of 'converters/libiconv'
> --->  Fetching the package(s) for 'libiconv-1.9.1_3' (converters/libiconv)
> --->  Fetching libiconv-1.9.1_3
> fetch: ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-4.9-release/All/libiconv-1.9.1_3.tgz: File unavailable (e.g., file not found, no access)
> ** The command returned a non-zero exit status: 1
> ** Failed to fetch ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-4.9-release/All/libiconv-1.9.1_3.tgz

I don't think they update the packages built for releases. When 4.9 came
out, the libiconv version was 1.9.1_1. This I determined by looking at:

ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-4.9-release/All/

(warning: long listing).

You have updated your ports tree, so now it points to version 1.9.1_3. But
your system is still 4.9-R. Not everything in the cross product of {freebsd
version} and {ports version} is built as a package.

It seems that libiconv 1.9.1_3 is there in the
ports/i386/packages-4-stable/All directory. So you might be ok for this
package if you cvsup to -stable. Or down-sup your ports tree to 4.9-R.

Another option is to just get that 1.9.1_3 file and hope it works. There's
probably a switch to pkg_add or to portupgrade to fetch from the
packages-4-stable subdirectory. However, that seems risky in terms of
dependencies (especially if the dependency is on something in the base
system, so portupgrade won't be able to just fetch it recursively).

>
> Questions:
>
> 2. Should I abandon my folly of trying to do 'portupgrade -PP' and
>    build package upgrades?

You "should" be ok if you stick with matched pairs of the the ports tree
and the freebsd version. Unfortunately, this means there's not much
upgrading you can do.

For what it's worth, I've had good luck with one build machine to create my
packages (from source), and several client machines that use them and don't
build need anything.

>
> 3. Is it simply the case that packages are provided for FreeBSD 5.X, but
>    the 4.X releases lag?
>

Actually, I'd guess that right now the 4.10 packages are being built. I
know the build cluster is underpowered and that lots of the bigger
mega-packages aren't being built frequently. But if you stick with the
releases, things seem a bit better, and they seem to have up to 3
historical versions archived (ie, right now there is 4.10, 4.9, and 4.8).


> 4. Similarly, I am having problems since I am not tracking -STABLE or
>    -CURRENT.  Slow changing "RELENG" releases are fine with me.
>

I think the intersection of people who:
 a. stick with releases
 b. update their ports
 c. want prebuilt packages

is very small. So there aren't very good solutions for this case.

> 5. What am I missing?  Should this procedure be less chatty?
>
> I will probably try doing "portupgrade -PR" to see how that goes.
>
> None of this is a gripe.  I'm just trying to get a clearer understanding
> of how FreeBSD provides upgrade services.  For my apart, I'm trying
> to determine which techniques for using the upgrade services work
> (without requiring too much time).

There are good upgrade paths for the base system, but ports aren't
supported at the same level. I think the best option freebsd currently
offers for what you want is to do binary upgrades whenever a new release
comes out. Relax any of the requirements (a-c) above and you'll have more
options.

-- 

  Dan Pelleg



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