update packages by pkg_add

[doug at safeport.com]

On Sat, 29 Oct 2011, Polytropon wrote:

> On Sat, 29 Oct 2011 17:53:28 +0200, Huub van Niekerk wrote:
>> Thank you for your answer. But how about if the package-to-be-replaced is a
>> dependency? Just remember the dependency and do the same ?
>
> As you're going to reinstall the package immediately,
> there won't be a problem. Of course, a depending program
> won't properly run until you've actually replaced the
> package in question.
>
> For keeping track of dependencies, you can also use
> portmaster or portupgrade and use -P and -PP options
> to work with packages (like pkg_add does) instead of
> compiling from sources. The "pkgdb -aF" command will
> properly store dependency informations.

If you are not familiar with portmaster or portupgrade, I would see if 
portmaster would do what you want. It is written in shell script and uses the 
underlying package/port files. For me it has worked well as long as I do not try 
to update KDE. Two other packages that are very helpful in updating are pkg_tree 
and pkg_cleanup. In addition, if part of your problems are perl, python and 
maybe php, there are make.conf variables to specify (in effect) that the 
versions installed should meet any dependency requirements. portdowngrade is 
very helpful if you have a component that is newer than what you need. I needed 
this to install kdiff3 a while ago.