Upgrade questions

[Ronald F. Guilmette]

In message <20080426144044.9AFBE4501D at ptavv.es.net>, 
"Kevin Oberman" <oberman at es.net> wrote:

>> First, a short while after I started up "make index" in the /usr/ports
>> directory, I received these messages:
>> 
>> Generating INDEX-6 - please wait../usr/local/bin/python2.5: not found
>> "Makefile", line 43: warning: "/usr/local/bin/python2.5 -c "import sys; prin
>t sys.version[:3]"" returned non-zero status
>
>Not sure,although that port was just updated.
>
>In any case, it's MUCH easier to use 'portsdb -F' to download the latest
>Index-6 file.

Yeabut I'm hoplessly curious, and I'd like to know why things that really
_should_ work apparently don't.

So who should I really be asking about the above error, and why it happened
and the Right Way to fix it properly.

(Call me anal retentive... and you wouldn't be the first to do so... but I
really don't like "mystery" errors/warnings that have nither any obvious
cause nor any obvious cure.)

>> OK, next question... The 20070519 note in the /usr/ports/UPGRADING file
>> says "If your machine does NOT have any gstreamer ports installed..."
>> OK, so excuse my ignorance, but how the bleep am I supposed to know if
>> I have any gstreamer ports installed?  I don't even know what a gstreamer
>> port is!
>
>Good Question. 'pkg_info gstreamer-\*' would be a good start. There are
>LOTS of gstreamer ports, so this could generate a lot of output.

Ummm... Are you SURE that you gave me that command correctly??

    % pkg_info gstreamer-\*
    pkg_info: can't find package 'gstreamer-*' installed or in a file!

(Figuring that that was wrong, I did this instead: "pkg_info | fgrep gstreamer"
and go no output.  So dopes that mean that I've got no gstreamer packages
installed?)

>> The 20070519 note in /usr/ports/UPGRADING then goes on to say:
>> 
>> 	... you can then just run:
>> 
>> 	# portupgrade -a
>> 
>> but that upgrades _all_ my ports, doesn't it??  What do I do if I'm not
>> prepared for that?  What do I do if I want to take this process a step
>> at a time, and first just upgrade _only_ the Xorg stuff and any other
>> ports that are dependant upon that stuff?  How can I do _just_ that?
>
>No, 'portupgrade -af' upgrades all of your ports. 'portupgrade -a'
>updates all of your ports that are out of date...which is the normal
>default use of portupgrade, at least for me.

Well, that's still more than I wanted to do.  remember, I'm paranoid and
I _did_ want to take this upgrade one step at a time, i.e. doing *just*
the X stuff and any other packages that I have installed that relay on
that... and then and only then looking at possibly updating some of my
other ports.

So how could I _only_ upgrade X and _just_ things that rely on it?

Is there a way to do only that?

>> How exactly do I "Make sure you have the x11/xorg meta-port installed"?
>
>'pkg_info xorg-\*'. Look for just 'xorg-VERSION' as there are several ports
>that are prefixed with 'xorg'. If you don't see it, after upgrading
>installed ports, 'portupgrade -N xorg' to install it.

OK, I was _trying_ to make at least _some_ progress last nite, but now
this system that I have been trying to upgrade is, I'm afraid horribly
hosed, and in a state where it is so snafued, I will just have to wipe
the disk and start over (i.e. with 7.0-RELEASE, in order to avoid all of
these bleeping problems).

Let me tell you were I'm at:  I _tried_ (and apparently failed) to do
*only* make (fresh) the x11/xorg-servers stuff, because I figured that
if I could just make that stuff *without* even installing it, then all
of the errors that I was getting from "pkg_version -v" saying, among other
things, that a file called:

  /usr/ports/x11/xorg-clients/../../x11-servers/xorg-server/Makefile.inc

was missing _might_ possibly go away.  In short, I was just mindlessly
trying to work towards being able to do "pkg_version -v" without it
barfing all over my screen with inexplicable error messages.

OK, so at first I made the stupid mastake of just going into the
/usr/ports/x11-servers directory and doing a "make" in there.  BAD DOG!
No biscut!  Weel, so I wasted an hour or so playing solitare over on my
Windoze box waiting for _that_ to finish, and when it became apparently
that it was going to take a week or so for this "make" to fully finish,
I control-C's out and then cd into x11-servers/xorg-server and started to
just do a "make" in there.  Sigh.  That also seemed to want to build
and install a large universe of other stuff (e.g. X libraries) however.
That that all dragged on and on and on...

... until about 4 AM when the make finally died:

]===>  Installing for libgpg-error-1.6
]===>   Generating temporary packing list
]===>  Checking if security/libgpg-error already installed
]===>   An older version of security/libgpg-error is already installed (libgpg-error-1.4)
]      You may wish to ``make deinstall'' and install this port again
]      by ``make reinstall'' to upgrade it properly.
]      If you really wish to overwrite the old port of security/libgpg-error
]      without deleting it first, set the variable "FORCE_PKG_REGISTER"
]      in your environment or the "make install" command line.
]*** Error code 1
]
]Stop in /usr/ports/security/libgpg-error.
]*** Error code 1
]
]Stop in /usr/ports/security/libgcrypt.
]*** Error code 1
]
]Stop in /usr/ports/textproc/libxslt.
]*** Error code 1
]
]Stop in /usr/ports/sysutils/policykit.
]*** Error code 1
]
]Stop in /usr/ports/sysutils/hal.
]*** Error code 1
]
]Stop in /usr/ports/x11-servers/xorg-server.
]*** Error code 1
]
]Stop in /usr/ports/x11-servers/xorg-server.

Oh crap!  I'm already out of my depth here, but I try to play along with
the suggestions in the error messages above.  I found out what version of
"libgpg-error" I've got installed and I try to pkg_delete it.  Buzzz!
Thanks for playing!

# pkg_delete libgpg-error-1.4
pkg_delete: package 'libgpg-error-1.4' is required by these other packages
and may not be deinstalled:
abiword-2.4.5_2
cups-1.2.2
cups-base-1.2.2
cups-pstoraster-8.15
gconf2-2.16.0
gnome-icon-theme-2.16.0.1_1
gnutls-1.4.4_1
libgcrypt-1.2.3_1
libglade2-2.6.0_2
libgnomecanvas-2.14.0_2
libgnomecups-0.2.2_1,1
libgnomeprint-2.12.1_3
libgnomeprintui-2.12.1_2
libgsf-1.14.2
samba-3.0.23c_2,1
wv-1.2.1
# 

Help me out a little here.  Educate me.  Please.  Teach a man to fish.  How
does one deal with situations like this, i.e. some package wants Version X
of package P, but what you have installed in version Y, and about eight
zillion things that depend on that (version Y).

After all these years of using FreeBSD without ever really understanding
the ports system, I really would like to finally learn how to use it
properly, but at this point I'm about this far -><- away from just
through in the towel, finding a spare drive someplace, and just loading
up 7.0-RELEASE on it, just to avoid his "twisty maze of little error
messages, all different".

>>    pkg_version -v
>> 
>> well, THAT didn't work out well at all.  I got a whole raft of errors from
>> that which mostly looked a lot like this one:
>> 
>> xorg-6.9.0                          <   needs updating (port has 7.3_1)
>> "Makefile", line 85: Could not find /usr/ports/x11/xorg-clients/../../x11-se
>rvers/xorg-server/Makefile.inc
>> "Makefile", line 92: Malformed conditional (${X_WINDOW_SYSTEM:L} != xorg)
>> "Makefile", line 96: if-less endif
>> make: fatal errors encountered -- cannot continue
>
>You need to use pkgdb -Ff to clean up or database.

I'm sorry to have to take issue with what you just said, but I don't think
so.

Before I started all this, a read the Handbook page about upgrading ports
and it told me to use "pkgdb -F" and to fix stuff that was messed... which
I already did.  And running "pkgdb -F" on this system _still_ produces
_no_ errors:

# pkgdb -F
--->  Checking the package registry database
[Updating the pkgdb <format:bdb_btree> in /var/db/pkg ... - 220 packages found (-1 +52) (...).................................................... done]
#

So how is running "pkgdb -Ff" going to have any effect on anything at this
point?  I don't understand.

>Also, pkg_version is a fairly dumb tool.

Dumb it may be, but I'm still trying to _understand_ why running it causes
mass quantities of error messages to be produced, like:

]"Makefile", line 23: Could not find /usr/ports/x11/xorg-documents/../../x11-servers/xorg-server/Makefile.inc
]"Makefile", line 26: Malformed conditional (${X_WINDOW_SYSTEM:L} != xorg)
]"Makefile", line 30: if-less endif
]make: fatal errors encountered -- cannot continue
]pkg_version: Failed to get PKGNAME from /usr/ports/x11/xorg-documents/Makefile!
]xorg-documents-6.9.0                !   Comparison failed

I've already Googled around and I am quite clearly _not_ the first person
to have reported these exact types of errors.  In short, this is (apparently)
a "known problem".  Now all I need is for somebody to tell me the proper
solution.  (_That_, unfortunately, is something that I was _not_ able to find,
no matter how much I googled for it.)

>Unfortunately, I suspect your database is not too clean,

Specifically, how would I check if it is or isn't?

Opinions are appreciated, but at this point I need more in the way of
actual enlightenment.