maintainer-feedback requested: [Bug 297065] ports-mgmt/pkg: pkg update -r FreeBSD-ports creates the db file with a size of 1.6 Giga(!)bytes

From: <bugzilla-noreply_at_freebsd.org>
Date: Sun, 26 Jul 2026 13:10:05 UTC
Bugzilla Automation <bugzilla@FreeBSD.org> has asked freebsd-pkg (Nobody)
<pkg@FreeBSD.org> for maintainer-feedback:
Bug 297065: ports-mgmt/pkg: pkg update -r FreeBSD-ports creates the db file
with a size of 1.6 Giga(!)bytes
https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=297065



--- Description ---
After pkg update -r FreeBSD-ports 
the file /var/db/pkg/repos/FreeBSD-ports/db has a size of 1.6GB. I could not
trust my eyes and checked all my boxes and everywhere the same size, also in
jails.

How to reproduce:
rm /var/db/pkg/repos/FreeBSD-ports/*
# pkg update -r FreeBSD-ports
Updating FreeBSD-ports repository catalogue...
Fetching meta.conf: 100%     168 B   0.2 kB/s	 00:01	  
Fetching data: 100%    12 MiB	3.2 MB/s    00:04    
Processing entries: 100%
FreeBSD-ports repository update completed. 38008 packages processed.
Fetching files: 100%	41 MiB	 4.3 MB/s    00:10    
Processing file entries: 100%
FreeBSD-ports is up to date.

ls -l /var/db/pkg/repos/FreeBSD-ports/
total 640 MB
-rw-r--r--  1 root wheel  1,6G 260725_1907 db
-rw-r--r--  1 root wheel    0B 260726_1450 db-journal
-rw-r--r--  1 root wheel    0B 260726_1449 lock
-rw-r--r--  1 root wheel  162B 260726_1449 meta

This smells like a big security problem also.