[freebsd-ports] autoconf install not playing well? (more info)

[Tuc at T-B-O-H.NET]

> Hi,
> 
> 	I'm going through upgrading 1/2 a zillion ports on
> a machine, and while I was doing it all of a sudden I got
> notification the server was not responding. It seems
> /usr/local/bin/perl no longer existed. I went and checked
> my /usr/local/bin and only found :
> 
> asgard# ls
> autoconf-2.53   autom4te-2.53   autoscan-2.53   ifnames-2.53
> autoheader-2.53 autoreconf-2.53 autoupdate-2.53
> 
> 
> 	The other thing I noticed is that there were 3
> other directories that seemed ONLY to have autoconf stuff:
> 
> 	info, man, share
> 
> 	It seems it took my soft links that I used for all
> those directories, deleted them, created new directories,
> and installed the software. 
> 
> 	Can anyone verify this? If so, WHY? Why would it
> care? I'll spend the time re-copying all the files over
> where they belong and continue on my upgrade... 
> 
> 		Thanks, Tuc
>
	I cleaned things up, re-ran portupgrade, and saw
exactly what it did....

	It asks if I want to upgrade 2.53 to 2.61, so I
say "YES".

	Goes about its business then :

--->  Uninstallation of autoconf-2.53_4 ended at: Wed, 26 Dec 2007 17:22:31 -0500 (consumed 00:00:03)
--->  Installation of devel/autoconf261 started at: Wed, 26 Dec 2007 17:22:31 -0500
--->  Installing the new version via the port
===>  Installing for autoconf-2.61_2
===>   autoconf-2.61_2 depends on executable: gm4 - found
===>   autoconf-2.61_2 depends on executable: autoconf-wrapper - found
===>   autoconf-2.61_2 depends on file: /usr/local/bin/perl5.8.8 - found
===>   Generating temporary packing list
===>  Checking if devel/autoconf261 already installed
===>   autoconf-2.61_2 is already installed
      You may wish to ``make deinstall'' and install this port again
      by ``make reinstall'' to upgrade it properly.
      If you really wish to overwrite the old port of devel/autoconf261
      without deleting it first, set the variable "FORCE_PKG_REGISTER"
      in your environment or the "make install" command line.
*** Error code 1

		(deleted)

--->  Modifying /var/db/pkg/zsh-4.3.4_1/+CONTENTS
--->  Restoring the old version
--->  Removing old package'
** Fix the installation problem and try again.
--->  Installation of devel/autoconf261 ended at: Wed, 26 Dec 2007 17:22:42 -0500 (consumed 00:00:10)
--->  Upgrade of devel/autoconf261 ended at: Wed, 26 Dec 2007 17:22:42 -0500 (consumed 00:01:16)


	So it doesn't look like autoconf maybe itself, but
the "Restoring the old version" phase.

	Where to go from here? I see in UPDATING :

20070930:
  AFFECTS: everyone
  AUTHOR: Mark Linimon <linimon at FreeBSD.org>

  The ports tree has been migrated to the latest version of autoconf,
  2.61.  Versions 2.53 and 2.59 were declared obsolete and removed.



	is it that the ports system doesn't know how to
handle this change? How do I tell the system to consider that I don't
have 2.53 anymore, just delete /var/db/pkg/autoconf-2.53_4 ?
(I also have autoconf-2.59_3, how to do the same for that?)

			Thanks, Tuc