From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Jan 30 23:45:52 2012 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DA7A0106564A for ; Mon, 30 Jan 2012 23:45:52 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from rwmaillists@googlemail.com) Received: from mail-wi0-f182.google.com (mail-wi0-f182.google.com [209.85.212.182]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 63AF28FC08 for ; Mon, 30 Jan 2012 23:45:51 +0000 (UTC) Received: by wibhn14 with SMTP id hn14so5759840wib.13 for ; Mon, 30 Jan 2012 15:45:51 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=googlemail.com; s=gamma; h=date:from:to:subject:message-id:in-reply-to:references:x-mailer :mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding; bh=NwMwzIVd1UErp179Fx/303wopRMLdXSUzIhlucXjUKw=; b=Df+EH0OgUCbxNDMCdJoMGcARM3WVvEDXb3R65qGamJw5jj+1GVLvCXaiNADYxfvtfY /7+1WYXAL0VfneO7SO/bRd+LiwYx6sIJWrZzyr2x9A6EfkMbxKSUZWJXjR3GpKBOF2Or QW4Hxa8QTkPDujeWrNoY5mSXFkh6ikB3MzzKQ= Received: by 10.180.94.68 with SMTP id da4mr30206211wib.22.1327967151288; Mon, 30 Jan 2012 15:45:51 -0800 (PST) Received: from gumby.homeunix.com (87-194-105-247.bethere.co.uk. [87.194.105.247]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id hc10sm33672070wib.8.2012.01.30.15.45.49 (version=SSLv3 cipher=OTHER); Mon, 30 Jan 2012 15:45:50 -0800 (PST) Date: Mon, 30 Jan 2012 23:45:45 +0000 From: RW To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Message-ID: <20120130234545.3db77a79@gumby.homeunix.com> In-Reply-To: References: X-Mailer: Claws Mail 3.8.0 (GTK+ 2.24.6; amd64-portbld-freebsd8.2) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: Re: Unable to upgrade packages on FreeBSD X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 30 Jan 2012 23:45:52 -0000 On Mon, 30 Jan 2012 12:52:07 -0500 David Jackson wrote: > I have tried endlessly to no avail to upgrade binary the packages on > Freebsd to the latest version. I have tried: > > *portupgrade -PP -a > *portmaster -PP -a > *pkg_update > > All fail miserably and totally and have left the system in an > unuseable state. For the benefit of new readers David's question tend to take the form: I'm doing this the hard way, I'm refusing to compromise, and yet it still isn't working. I updated from ports yesterday and it did "just work". If you dropped at least one of the -P flags, you should have less trouble. If you need binary packages for a production server, then build your own. > Why can't FreeBSD just make the package system "just work". Right > after installing FreeBSD I should be able to type a single command > such as update_packages and it should update all packages on the > system, Why would you need to update packages after a fresh install? It's better not to install any stale packages in the first place. > Why not? Why is something so simple so difficult and impossible? > Ubuntu can do it, why not FreeBSD? Ubuntu does pretty much nothing but build packages from third-party software that's either portable or Linux-centric. A lot of it is inherited from Debian, it has a comparatively huge user-base, and financial backing from a commercial company. > Why cant FreeBSD Just make the package upgrades work. You aren't telling us anything new here, *prebuilt* binary package are a second-class way of updating on FreeBSD. Packages pretty much have to be built for current and stable development branches for testing purposes. They are built against a constantly changing ports tree with variable lag which isn't ideal. Making it work like Ubuntu would need a lot more hardware and a lot more work from port maintainers to support branching the ports tree. At the moment there aren't really enough to maintain one tree.