Ports/packages confusion

[Lowell Gilbert]

Chandan Haldar <chandanh at gmail.com> writes:

> Will someone please point me to an explanation for why the packages in
> my install sets (that I chose at the time of installation of my
> FreeBSD 6.0 Release), for example the X11R6 packages, do not show up
> in the installed packages list (pkg_info or pkg_version)?

That's not supposed to be the case.  I certainly haven't seen it.

>                                                            What will
> happen to the installed Xorg set if I try to upgrade to a newer Xorg
> rel through the ports/packages system?

You may need to "force" it. (-f)

> May be this would explain to me how (while trying to upgrade my
> installed ports including gnome 2.10->2,12 upgrade) I managed to mess
> up my working gnome 2.10 installation (done from the ISO disk images
> at FreeBSD install time) so badly that I'm finding it impossible to
> recover from that.

Well, since you missed gnome_upgrade.sh the first time, you're left
with quite a mess.  Forcibly removing all the X-related packages,
wiping out the detritis left /usr/X11, and reinstalling gnome would be
my approach, but I don't mind leaving the machine alone for a long
time while it grinds through the install.

>                     The mysteries of pkgdb -F also needs way more
> effort than I have been able to give so far.  It shows stale
> dependnecies right after portsnap fetch/extract even before pkg_info
> shows any packages installed.  Why?!  Where can I read a precise
> definition of 'stale dependency' as understood by the ports management
> programs?

That's just an unavoidable result of the fact that the ports database
has no idea where your X installation came from.