Re: RFC: Renaming "FreeBSD" repo in /etc/pkg/FreeBSD.conf to "FreeBSD-ports"

> On Aug 20, 2025, at 7:03 AM, Gleb Popov <arrowd@freebsd.org> wrote:
> 
> On Wed, Aug 20, 2025 at 1:20 PM Matteo Riondato <matteo@freebsd.org> wrote:
>> 
>>> On Aug 20, 2025, at 6:15 AM, Gleb Popov <arrowd@freebsd.org> wrote:
>>> 
>>> On Wed, Aug 20, 2025 at 12:48 PM Matteo Riondato <matteo@freebsd.org> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> It’s unclear (to me) whether that’s the *correct* way, or the *recommended* way (pkg(8) calls it “a common idiom”), and in either case *why* is that the recommended/correct way: what breaks if one modifies /etc/FreeBSD.conf ? Why does it break?
>>> 
>>> The /etc/pkg/FreeBSD.conf file comes from base (some pkgbase package
>>> or as a result of make installworld or something like that). This
>>> means that system upgrades must handle edits to this file somehow -
>>> either by overwriting your changes with vanilla version or by merging
>>> them, which can't be done 100% automatically.
>> 
>> This is true for so many files under /etc, and we have a solution with etcupdate (indeed, not 100% automatically, but widely accepted).
> 
> There is no etcupdate involved with binary package upgrades. But there
> is still a 3-way merge, yes, but like you said, it is not 100%
> automatic. So why not avoid the possibility of a merge conflict if we
> can do that?

I see that point, and in general it’s a good goal.

I would be way more comfortable with the idea that the contents of /etc/pkg/FreeBSD.conf should not be changed if the file lived in /etc/defaults (e.g., /etc/defaults/FreeBSD-pkg.conf or FreeBSD-repos.conf), or had some “default” in its name/path (e.g., /etc/pkg/FreeBSD-repos-defaults.conf (but I would prefer /etc/defaults/FreeBSD-repos.conf)).

Thanks,
Matteo