Date: Sun, 7 Dec 2025 08:11:39 +0000 From: Sad Clouds <cryintothebluesky@gmail.com> To: Graham Perrin <grahamperrin@gmail.com> Cc: FreeBSD questions <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: (2517) the error message when removing a dependency of a vital package is uninformative (was: Trying to understand base system packages) Message-ID: <20251207081139.7e2f65b97b4c089ac0add431@gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <16e766b9-f442-4cef-a991-c940f6b8182a@gmail.com> References: <20251205122830.cb88058f193987b47a95a77c@gmail.com> <20251205134510.6fae5caf@dorfdsl.de> <20251205143119.441cc1bd8722345d074a4480@gmail.com> <16e766b9-f442-4cef-a991-c940f6b8182a@gmail.com>
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On Sat, 6 Dec 2025 21:40:14 +0000 Graham Perrin <grahamperrin@gmail.com> wrote: > On 05/12/2025 14:31, Sad Clouds wrote: > > … > > > > This happens for every other base package: > > > > # pkg delete FreeBSD-games > > Cannot solve problem using SAT solver, trying another plan > > Cannot solve problem using SAT solver, trying another plan > > Cannot solve problem using SAT solver, trying another plan > > Checking integrity... done (0 conflicting) > > 1 packages requested for removal: 0 locked, 1 missing > > > the error message when removing a dependency of a vital package is > uninformative · Issue #2517 · freebsd/pkg > <https://github.com/freebsd/pkg/issues/2517>; > > Hi, thanks for the link. I've read all the comments there and this still leaves casual FreeBSD users like myself confused. I appreciate that this feature may still be experimental, however so far I have not been able not find a way to resolve my original issue. - I don't understand the design of base meta packages (sets?) and there is no documentation that describes this well. The freebsd-base(7) mentions briefly that some packages are grouped into sets, but does not go deeper, does not explain about the "vital" dependency flag and does not provide examples of how to view and manage packages sets. In fact the pkg(8) man page is missing the new "sets" command. - I'm still stuck with a system where I cannot delete individual packages which I do not need. The issue seems to be: some package somewhere is marked as "vital" in the dependency chain, hence pkg refuses to remove a package. I am still no closer to figuring out how to resolve this. The comments in the bug suggest "remove the optional set (this does not remove any other packages)" Ok, lets try this: # pkg delete FreeBSD-set-optional Checking integrity... done (0 conflicting) The following package(s) are locked or vital and may not be removed: FreeBSD-set-optional 1 packages requested for removal: 1 locked, 0 missing I guess there is "-f" option I could try, but I don't like using any force options, as it usually indicates something is broken somewhere. I'm sorry but the optional meta package and sendmail (which is part of it) are not vital and there needs to be an easier way to remove them. Isn't this the whole point of having base packages, so that the system can be customised much easier by installing/removing individual packages, instead of building custom release with custom src.conf options for different use cases? # pkg sets FreeBSD-set-base-15.0: FreeBSD-set-optional-15.0 FreeBSD-set-minimal-15.0 FreeBSD-set-devel-15.0 FreeBSD-set-devel-15.0: ... FreeBSD-set-minimal-15.0: ... FreeBSD-set-optional-15.0: ... The base set includes all other sets, why? If some meta package is optional or development software, why is it locked to the base set? If I misunderstand anything here, then please correct me.help
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