ports/172651: portmaster --index and --index-only redundancy and processing error

[jb]

>Number:         172651
>Category:       ports
>Synopsis:       portmaster --index and --index-only redundancy and processing error
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       non-critical
>Priority:       low
>Responsible:    freebsd-ports-bugs
>State:          open
>Quarter:        
>Keywords:       
>Date-Required:
>Class:          sw-bug
>Submitter-Id:   current-users
>Arrival-Date:   Fri Oct 12 20:40:00 UTC 2012
>Closed-Date:
>Last-Modified:
>Originator:     jb
>Release:        FreeBSD 9.1-RC2 #0
>Organization:
>Environment:
FreeBSD localhost.localdomain 9.1-RC2 FreeBSD 9.1-RC2 #0 r241133: Tue Oct  2 17:11:45 UTC 2012     root at obrian.cse.buffalo.edu:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC  i386

>Description:
It seems that there is a redundancy on two levels:
1. between these two options
     --index
         use INDEX-[7-9] exclusively to check if a port is up to date
     --index-only
         do not try to use /usr/ports.  For updating ports when no
         /usr/ports directory is present the -PP|--packages-only option is
         required.  See the ENVIRONMENT section below for additional
         requirements.

# ls /usr/ports/
..
INDEX-7
INDEX-8
INDEX-9
INDEX-9.bz2
..
#
# portmaster -L --index-only | egrep '(ew|ort) version|total install'
	===>>> New version available: smartmontools-5.43_1
===>>> 618 total installed ports
	===>>> 1 has a new version available

# portmaster -L --index | egrep '(ew|ort) version|total install'
	===>>> New version available: smartmontools-5.43_1
===>>> 618 total installed ports
	===>>> 1 has a new version available
#

# mv /usr/ports /usr/ports-saved

# portmaster -L --index-only | egrep '(ew|ort) version|total install'
/tmp/d-85964-index/INDEX-9.bz2                100% of 1619 kB  185 kBps
	===>>> New version available: smartmontools-5.43_1
===>>> 618 total installed ports
	===>>> 1 has a new version available

# portmaster -L --index | egrep '(ew|ort) version|total install'
/tmp/d-87852-index/INDEX-9.bz2                100% of 1619 kB  125 kBps
00m00s Terminated #

   Note: - the second entry outcome (with --index option) looks like a bug to
           me.
         - the second entry - notice the downloading action (I will come back
           to it).

   I repeated the procedure once again, with the same behavior and results,
   except this for the second entry:
# portmaster -L --index | egrep '(ew|ort) version|total install'
Terminated

   Note: - the second entry - notice the LACK OF downloading action,
           which could indicate some kind of instability in 'portmaster'

   Conclusion:
   The --index-only option seems to be redundant in both cases (there is
   the same behavior to attempt to process INDEX files).

2. between --index-only option and -PP|--packages-only option

   Conclusion:
   The -PP|--packages-only option implies "index only" entry behavior, so
   there is redundancy here as well.

Summary conclusion:
I can not see where this --index-only option really matters ?
The --index option seems to be enough to indicate to process INDEX files only
(regardless of /usr/ports being present or not)
  and
the -PP|--packages-only option or similar package processing options clearly
give the entry a context of "index only", that is, to process INDEX files only (regardless of /usr/ports being present or not).
jb

>How-To-Repeat:
as above
>Fix:


>Release-Note:
>Audit-Trail:
>Unformatted: