Re: Python version dependencies in pkg

> On Sep 29, 2022, at 14:21, Stefan Esser <se@freebsd.org> wrote:
> 
> 
>> But trying to do a pkg delete python3.8 attempted to delete bind-tools, and I was looking for the magic incantation that says "without reinstalling bind-tools, how can I re-point it at the python39 variants of that package".  On a box without a ports tree.  Only using pkg.
> 
> As you say, bind-tools does no longer depend on Python and therefore is
> not a good example.

You're correct, but it was the [most recent] one that sent us down this rabbit hole, so I'm using it.

> But you can use the above command to query the python dependency for any
> pre-built package.
> 
> And no, you cannot "re-point" a package. "Re-pointing" is done by building
> the package with different default versions, and you can do it yourself,
> if the official version do not match your requirements.

That goes against the whole recommendation of "don't mix ports and packages", which means I'd be building everything from gcc on up to solve this.  We have a large enough install base and we're familiar with poudriere that yes, we could do these things if we have to, but it would be a pain point.

Ah well.   At this point I can count three times in recent history (with three different packages) where a changing default has burned us, and I have some suggestions for improvement that I'm trying to organize, but now that I understand how defaults are baked in to packages, I have a greater understanding of the problem to be solved/worked around/just accepted.

Thanks to everyone who responded.

Best,

-Dan