pkg upgrade yields conflicts in message

From: Mike <the.lists_at_mgm51.com>
Date: Sat, 18 Jul 2026 05:29:00 UTC
OK, I had been critical of the "conflicts" presented in pkgs.

Today, I performed an update,
Many, many! gcc updates downloaded and installed.

And, after the update, lo and behold ...

No conflicts noted!

.....

# pkg-do-upgrades.sh
Updating FreeBSD-ports repository catalogue...
FreeBSD-ports repository is up to date.
Updating FreeBSD-ports-kmods repository catalogue...
FreeBSD-ports-kmods repository is up to date.
Updating FreeBSD repository catalogue...
FreeBSD repository is up to date.
All repositories are up to date.
Checking for upgrades (0 candidates): 100%
Processing candidates (0 candidates): 100%
Checking integrity... done (0 conflicting)
Your packages are up to date.

.....


Of course, there still remains the questions for me...

Why do I need to download and install all of ...

gcc12-12.4.0_5                 GNU Compiler Collection 12
gcc13-devel-13.4.1.s20260624   GNU Compiler Collection 13
gcc14-devel-14.3.1.s20260618,1 GNU Compiler Collection 14
gcc15-15.2.0_3                 GNU Compiler Collection 15
gcc16-devel-16.1.1.s20260627   GNU Compiler Collection 16
gcc17-devel-17.0.0.s20260621   GNU Compiler Collection 17


on the server?

Six different versions of gcc??

I mean really, can't FreeBSD get its collective act together and move 
towards one or two, even three versions of gcc?

But six?

Wow.