Re: user feedback

Lexi Winter <ivy_at_freebsd.org> wrote on
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 2025 12:46:27 UTC :

> infoomatic wrote in <06f829a7-4378-4a24-a3db-f929d812cddd@gmx.at>:
> > I just want to give some feedback regarding package base.
> 
> . . .
> > 4.) I bricked the system with "pkg delete -af", as was discussed already on
> > this mailing list. This should not be possible, in my opinion.
> 
> i do not know what else you expected here. if you remove the base system,
> then the system can no longer boot, because you removed it. the solution
> is to not do that.
> 
> as an aside, i am confused about the number of people who seem to run
> "pkg delete -af" as a matter of course. where did you learn to do this?
> is there some FreeBSD YouTuber telling people to do this?

[Note: "involved", as referenced below, is intended to be tied to
updating a live environment that is using the pkgbase materials in
question.]

This is easy to understand for a context with pkgbase not involved --and
going back there was a time when it was never involved for a lot of folks.
Such also applies to "pkg delete -a" and confirming the delete instead of
also using -f . The -f is a secondary aspect, not primary here.

So when did I use "pkg delete -a" (I did not use the -f but would
review and confirm/deny)?

Without pkgbase in use, it is valid to delete all port-packages (or all
but pkg itself when pkg protects itself) and then start over for installing
port-packages. I used to do this to clean out all port-package experiments
that I'd explicitly installed (so autoremove would not delete what was
explicitly installed) and then would get back to my standard set of
packages with an eventual install command referencing a file listing what
to install. One by one cleanup was a waste of effort/time and was
potentially error prone. (This was prior to my having pkgbase in use.)

"man pkg-delete" reports:

     -f, --force
                Forces packages to be removed despite leaving unresolved
                dependencies.  In combination with the -a or --all flag,
                causes pkg(8) to be removed as well as all other packages.

That even says that -a -f is supposed to just-work as described --and
without pkgbase involved that is just port-packages that are involved.

But when pkgbase is involved in the context, it fails to delete various
packages (last I tested the self destruct operation). The wording is not
a description of the reality for when pkgbase is involved, even if
what is described would be a self-destruct operation when pkgbase is
involved.

Again, -a without -f has the same issue if the -a is confirmed. -f is
not essential to the issue --and, in fact, I did not use -f and did
review the port-package list that -a presented back before I had
pkgbase involved.

I could imagine that as long as pkgbase being involved leads to not
working as described, that if pkgbase is involved in the context at the
time, -a could be refused with a message indicating that "pkg delete -a"
is not yet correctly supported when pkgbase is in use in the context.
That would be better than the current behavior, no matter if -f is
used with the -a or not for the delete.

> . . .


===
Mark Millard
marklmi at yahoo.com