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Date: Fri, 05 Sep 2014 18:52:01 +0200
From: Juan =?iso-8859-1?b?UmFt824=?= Molina Menor <listjm@club-internet.fr>
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Subject: pkg upgrade -f refusing to upgrade packages???
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> Hello,
>
> I seem to keep either finding problems in pkg or completely missing
> the point of it :(
>
> <snip>
>
> Now, I would like to force-upgrade them all:
>
> # pkg upgrade -f `pkg info -g 'cups*'`
As far as I know and the manual says, the -f option forces the 
reinstallation or upgrade of the whole set of packages, this ignoring 
your provided pkg-names.

> Updating FreeBSD repository catalogue...
> FreeBSD repository is up-to-date.
> Updating FreeBSD_new_xorg repository catalogue...
> FreeBSD_new_xorg repository is up-to-date.
> All repositories are up-to-date.
> The following 3 packages will be affected (of 0 checked):
…of 0 checked…

This is maybe not related to your issue, but at least could remove one 
source of confusion.

Did you issued a "pkg update -f" after upgrading to pkg 1.3.7?

Hope it helps,
Juan