Re: pkg(8): difference between "-c /path" and "-r /path"

On Mon, Feb 27, 2023 at 09:04:34AM +0100, Michael Schuster wrote:
> Guys,
> 
> see inline
> 
> On Mon, Feb 27, 2023 at 8:58 AM Baptiste Daroussin <bapt@freebsd.org> wrote:
> >
> > On Sun, Feb 26, 2023 at 10:07:14AM +0100, Michael Schuster wrote:
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > This question is (as of yet) more of the "fill in background info" type:
> > > From the "pkg(8)" man-page:
> > >
> > >      -c <chroot path>, --chroot <chroot path>
> > >     pkg will chroot in the <chroot path> environment.
> > >
> > >      -r <root directory>, --rootdir <root directory>
> > >     pkg will install all packages within the specified <root
> > >     directory>.
> > >
> > > up to now, I've leaned towards "pkg -c /path <cmd>" when
> > > installing/updating a BE mounted at /path, but, given some results in the
> > > past that weren't quite clear to me (yes, that's a bit vague, sorry), I've
> > > been wondering whether "-r /path" would have been better.
> > >
> > > I'd appreciate thoughts/advice/comments, TIA
> > > Michael
> >
> > pkg -c will chroot (real chroot as in chroot(2)) into the directory at early
> > stage and execute everything from the inside.
> >
> > This means that for post install script the kernel of the host needs to be able
> > to run the binary withing the guest (for instance you cannot cross install).
> >
> > For the packages themselves it is transparent if that is the case.
> >
> > pkg -r, will run everything from the host and with the provided rootdir prepend
> > to all path in the packages and database, post install scripts needs to know
> > about PKG_ROOTDIR variable (which is not the case for many of them in the ports
> > tree). triggers will be deffered (to be run at next boot).
> >
> > pkg -r allows cross installation (preparing an arm64 rootdir on a amd64 host).
> >
> > In long term pkg -r is preferred, right now pkg -c is probably most of the time
> > safest.
> 
> my main use case is keeping the current installation (13 Release for
> now) up to date and to have a fallback when installing new software;
> in that case, if I understand your comments correctly so far, either
> should work equally well.
> 

Almost, right now pkg -c should work best as not 100% of the scritps in the
ports tree are pkg -r aware.

Best regards,
Bapt