portupgrade - skipping -held by user- meaning?

[Vizion]

Re: portupgrade - skipping -held by user- meaning?

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Roger Merritt [mailto:mcrogerm at stjohn.ac.th] 
> Sent: Tuesday, January 02, 2007 2:22 AM
> To: Vizion
> Subject: Re: portupgrade - skipping -held by user- meaning?
> 
> 
> At 01:40 AM 1/2/2007 -0800, you wrote:
> 
> 
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: owner-freebsd-questions at freebsd.org
> > > [mailto:owner-freebsd-questions at freebsd.org] On Behalf Of 
> Sahil Tandon
> > > Sent: Monday, January 01, 2007 3:36 PM
> > > To: freebsd-questions at freebsd.org
> > > Subject: Re: portupgrade - skipping -held by user- meaning?
> > >
> > >
> > > Vizion wrote:
> > >
> > > > What does it mean when the message
> > > > ---> skipping [portname] because it is held by user
> > > (specify -f to force)
> > >
> > > Does said port appear in the HOLD_PKGS array within
> > > pkgtools.conf?  From
> > > that file:
> > >
> > >    # HOLD_PKGS: array
> > >    #
> > >    # This is a list of ports you don't want 
> portupgrade(1) to upgrade,
> > >    # portversion(1) to suggest upgrading, or pkgdb(1) to fix.
> > >    # You can use wildcards ("ports glob" and "pkgname glob").
> > >    # -f/--force with each command will override the held status.
> > >
> > > > and when & why should -f be specify?
> > >
> > > When you want to force the upgrade of a package even though you've
> > > "held" it in pkgtools.conf.
> > >
> >Thanks from what you say I understand what happens but do 
> not understand 
> >the when and whys!!
> >My pkgtools.conf had entries in it but none made by me. In what 
> >circumstances would one choose to "hold" and how come there 
> are "holds" 
> >without my knowing anything about it?
> >
> >This is always one of the difficulties with freebsd .. the 
> what and how 
> >questions get answered in the man pages but information that informs 
> >judgement upon when the "how" and "what" to-do is best 
> implemented are 
> >missing!!
> >
> >Thanks for your help
> 
> One way it can happen is from installing Perl modules that 
> haven't been 
> ported. I had to install three or four using CPAN, and they 
> were entered 
> into my HOLD_PKGS array automagically. The reason is (I 
> suppose) because 
> they aren't available in the ports and so portupgrade 
> shouldn't generate 
> errors when it can't fetch them. I would guess other 
> installations that 
> don't come from ports should be treated the same way -- when 
> you want to 
> upgrade them you need to do it the same way you did the original 
> installation. I can't remember now any that I did manually; I 
> try to only 
> install stuff that's in the ports collection. I don't know 
> how the entries 
> got put in your HOLD_PKGS array, but you might do a make 
> search and see if 
> they have been added to the ports collection since you installed them.
> 
> 
Tghanks very much Roger.. understood.

I will write a short script to check for changes in pkgtools.conf and run it both before and after portupgrade is run. That way I will at least have a handle on what is going on.

Thanks again

David