Handbook suggestion: Dealing with Moved Ports

[Chris Rees]

On 31 May 2013 08:06, Mike Brown <mike at skew.org> wrote:
> [ This is a followup to my thread at http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-ports/2013-May/083943.html ]
>
> /usr/ports/UPDATING does not normally mention when ports are moved. Unless
> there are special considerations, that info only lives in /usr/ports/MOVED,
> which isn't really something people are expected to look at. Rather, I think
> people usually find out that a port has moved when they try to update their
> installation of it and portmaster (or whatever) aborts with a message about
> the situation:
>
> # portmaster www/mediawiki
>
>         ===>>> The www/mediawiki port moved to www/mediawiki119
>         ===>>> Reason: Rename mediawiki to mediawiki119
>
> ===>>> Exiting
>
> ===>>> The second argument to -o can be a port in /var/db/pkg,
>        or a port directory from /usr/ports
>
>         does not seem to be installed,
>        or listed as a dependency
>
> ===>>> No valid installed port, or port directory given
> ===>>> Try portmaster --help
>
> ===>>> Killing background jobs
> Terminated
> ===>>> Exiting
>
>
> As you can see, this is a rather cryptic message. What am I expected to do
> here, in order to get this port upgraded?
>
> As far as I can tell, there's nothing about this in the Handbook, and the
> message from portmaster isn't giving me any real guidance as to how to deal
> with this situation.
>
> Perhaps ch. 5.8 - "Dealing with Broken Ports" could be followed by a chapter
> on dealing with moved ports. I believe the proper course of action for people
> in this situation is to first check /usr/ports/UPDATING for specific
> instructions. If there are none, then it depends on what tool they're using.
> For example, in my situation, I should do this:
>
>   portmaster -o www/mediawiki-119 www/mediawiki
>
> or, if I want to upgrade to the newer version, I could instead do this:
>
>   portmaster -o www/mediawiki-120 www/mediawiki
>
> I don't know what instructions should be for the other port/package systems;
> I'm only using portmaster these days.

Personally I put a note in UPDATING if it's a version switch, because
these shouldn't normally be done automatically.

Normally it's a case of:

MOVED:cat/oldport|cat/newport|....

which causes the port to be replaced without question, which probably
isn't desirable when you have to migrate configuration etc.  That's
when I put notes in UPDATING.

Anyone disagree with me, or shall I document that? :)

> (Also, unrelated: I suggest changing the first sentence of ch. 5.8 from
> "If you come across a port that does not compile"
> to
> "If you come across a port that does not build or install properly".)

Great idea, I'll do that.

Chris