portupgrade problems on 4.x

[Jake Lloyd]

Brandon S. Allbery KF8NH wrote:
> On Fri, 2005-07-15 at 14:46 +0200, Anton Berezin wrote:
> 
>>On Fri, Jul 15, 2005 at 02:25:29PM +0200, Jake Lloyd wrote:
>>
>>>[Failed `Inappropriate file type or format'] [Updating the portsdb 
>>><format:bdb1_btree> in /usr/ports ... - 13190 port entries found 
>>>.........1000.........2000.........3000.........4000.........5000.........6000.........7000.........8000.........9000.........10000.........11000........./usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/portsdb.rb:613: 
>>>[BUG] Segmentation fault
>>>ruby 1.8.2 (2004-12-25) [i386-freebsd4]
>>>
>>>Abort (core dumped)
>>
>>Just another data point - I also experienced that after ruby upgrade on
>>a couple of 4.X systems.
> 
> 
> I believe this is a known problem with the Berkeley DB in the base
> system which has proved very difficult to track down; nobody's been able
> to pin down the exact circumstances in which it's triggered.  The
> workaround is to tell portupgrade to use a format other than bdb1_btree:
> 
> export PKG_DBDRIVER=bdb1_hash
> export PORTS_DBDRIVER=bdb1_hash
> 
> or install a recent portupgrade configured with the option to use
> BerkeleyDB from ports instead of the 1.85 in the base.
> 

Thanks for the information and for your recommendations.
The work-around you suggested did not fix the problem on these two 
systems, but following your second suggestion did work (on just one, so 
far).
I was previously put off opting for the bdb4 back end because of a 
warning comment of the portupgrade port maintainer, some time ago, 
indicating some 'lack of support' for this option. I don't know what it 
was about, and may not be true any more.

(In case anyone else is following this and wants to do the same, 
remember to delete
/var/db/ports/portupgrade/options
before (re)installing portupgrade.)

Thanks to everyone who responded to my original post.

-Jake