Re: Why do packages disappear?

On 21/11/23 21:42, Richard Childers wrote:
> When I say 'disappear', I mean this:
> 
> 
> root@metatron:~ # date
> Tue Nov 21 12:41:35 PST 2023
> 
> root@metatron:~ # ls -d /usr/ports/*/*google*chrom*
> /usr/ports/www/ungoogled-chromium
> 
> root@metatron:~ # pkg search ungoogled-chromium
> root@metatron:~ #
> 
> 
> It would be nice if packages didn't disappear and reappear. Can't we 
> just save the last successful build?

Quick reply: no

Quick explanation: the previous build could simply fail at runtime due 
to changes in the dependencies. This would be rare enough, but would 
happen from time to time.

If we did it that way the package would not disappear but from time to 
time simply fail at run time (fail to start, dump core etc.) with no 
simple explanation, with the added problem that people unlucky enough to 
have installed the broken version would have no way to distinguish the 
bad one from the good one. They would have to randomly force 
reinstallation until it runs.

Now, the problem is, chromium and its derivatives tend to fail from time 
to time for various reasons even if the port is not really broken. 
Sometimes the build simply times out because they are very heavy to 
build. SO they disappear more often.

But any port can fail to build and if it fails there is a reason, 
providing an old package with the same name is inherently dangerous.

-- 
Guido Falsi <madpilot@FreeBSD.org>