Problem using Portmaster to upgrade installed ports via packages only

[b. f.]

> Hi,
>
> On my FreeBSD box running 8.0-RELEASE-p3, I have tried to use PORTMASTER tool to upgrade my ports via packages only.
> Then I added the following line to my user's .cshrc file and root's .cshrc file, and re-opened user's session :
> setenv PACKAGESITE ftp://ftp.fr.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-8-stable/All/
>
> Then I typed this linde into a console :
> % sudo portmaster -PP -a -x openoffice
>
> I past the output :
> ===>>> The following actions will be taken if you choose to proceed:
>     Upgrade automounter-1.4.2 to automounter-1.4.3
>     Upgrade liveMedia-2010.05.29,1 to liveMedia-2010.06.11,1
>     Upgrade portmaster-2.29 to portmaster-2.32
>     Upgrade bash-4.1.5_2 to bash-4.1.7
>     Upgrade iso-codes-3.16_1 to iso-codes-3.17
>     Upgrade p5-libwww-5.834 to p5-libwww-5.836
>     Upgrade tiff-3.9.3 to tiff-3.9.4
>     Upgrade filezilla-3.3.2.1_2 to filezilla-3.3.3
>     Upgrade gnupg-2.0.14_2 to gnupg-2.0.15
>     Upgrade libassuan-1.0.5 to libassuan-2.0.0
>     Upgrade wine-1.2.r3,1 to wine-1.2.r4,1
>
> ===>>> Proceed? y/n [y]
>
> ===>>> Starting install for for ports that need updating <<<===
>
> ===>>> Launching child to update automounter-1.4.2
>
> ===>>> Port directory: /usr/ports/sysutils/automounter
> ===>>> Checking package repository for latest available version
>
> ===>>> The newest available package (automounter-1.3.4)
>        is older than the version in ports (automounter-1.4.3)
>
> ===>>> Try --packages-if-newer, or do not use -PP/--packages-only
> ===>>> Aborting update
>
> ===>>> Update for automounter-1.4.2 failed
> ===>>> Aborting update
>
> The strange thing is the 'automounter-1.4.3' package is available on the FTP repository configured for PACKAGESITE.
>
> Elsewhere, I have tested these FTP repositories (for PACKAGESITE variable) without success :
> ftp://ftp.fr.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-8-stable/Lastest/
> ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-8-stable/Lastest/
> ftp://ftp.fr.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-8-stable/All/
>
> Thanks in advance for your help.
>
>

You should be able to use:

ftp://ftp.fr.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-8-stable

portmaster will trim trailing /, /Latest, /All.  But be aware that as
8-STABLE gets farther away from 8.0-RELEASE, some of the packages
there may not work with your 8.0-RELEASE-pX version, because your
version only incorporates critical fixes to 8.0-RELEASE, and not all
of the changes in 8-STABLE.

Do you have any old packages for automounter in your local package
directory? If so, remove them and then re-try the update.  It's
possible that an old local package may confuse portmaster into
thinking that the local package is the latest available package.

If the problem still occurs, send a verbose output to the list, using
portmaster -v ....

b.