[HEADSUP] pkg(8) is now the only package management tool

[Michelle Sullivan]

Andrew Berg wrote:
> On 2014.09.01 21:27, Michelle Sullivan wrote:
>   
>> Actually it's an inconvenience for someone like me and you.  Not for
>> many freebsd users, and certainly not for me 6 months ago if I hadn't
>> been writing my own ports.... oh and what was it, 1.3.6 -> 1.3.7? broke
>> shit... (badly) ...
>>     
> There were instructions for upgrading 1.3.6 to 1.3.7 alongside a notice that
> things would not be good if the instructions were not followed and an
> explanation of the issue. I think these kinds of notices need to reach more
> people, but of course, that is easier said than done.
> BTW, from what I have observed, 1.3.x issues have affected Poudriere users the
> most, binary package users a bit less (but still significantly), and pure ports
> users very little.
>   

I am a poudriere user... across 8.4, 9.0, 9.1, 9.2, 9.3, 10.0 on both
i386 and amd64 :/
>   
>>> Also, 9.3 is out and the 9.2 EOL is not far away. Not sure why you would be
>>> doing a new install with 9.2.
>>>   
>>>       
>> Try getting yourself a FreeBSD server at Softlayer...  They still
>> install 7.x for Christ's sake (amongst others - but last time I checked,
>> on new servers, 8.4, 9.0, 9.1, 10.0*)
>>     
> Fair enough.
>
>   
>> (not had time - because an EOL message is not a 'It will not
>> work after this date' message it is a 'you're unsupported after this
>> date and things *might* not work as expected'
>>     
> No, it means "we're not supporting this any more, so we don't care if there are
> new vulnerabilities or things stop working". I'm not going to dictate to other
> people what their upgrade schedule should be, but anyone running unsupported
> versions of software should not have any expectation that the ecosystem around
> it will be accommodating.
>   

That's my point - there was a patch waiting to submit that knowingly
broke pkg_install at midnight on the day after the EOL... the EOL
shouldn't be an EOL - because it was really a 'portsnap after this date
before you upgrade and you're screwed it won't work any more at all...'
> The ports tree already requires a lot work to make sure everything works on
> supported versions of FreeBSD, and I see no reason whatsoever for anyone to put
> effort into making it work on EOL versions.
>   

Some of us have production systems that span 6.0->10.0 (and most version
in between) and are fighting fires with minimal help just trying to keep
ahead....

-- 
Michelle Sullivan
http://www.mhix.org/