pkg repository question

[Matthew Seaman]

On 03/08/2014 20:19, doug at safeport.com wrote:
> I was building an old 9.1 system to check something out. It was
> convenience to use a 9.1-rc3 a DVD. I got an error saying there were no
> repositories for non releases. Perfectly understandable, so I updated to
> 9.1-rel and all is well.

This sounds suspiciously like the behaviour of the old pkg_tools stuff.
 I can't remember for sure if 9.1 came with pkg(8) as standard or not --
I don't believe it did.  Are you sure you weren't inadvertently trying
to install some old-style packages?

> That prompted two questions: first, is there a way to have forced the
> use of a 9.1 repository; and secondly how long will old repositories be
> available?

With pkg(8), there is no such thing as a '9.1' repository -- at least,
not anything officially supplied by the FreeBSD project.

There are repositories for eg, freebsd:9:x86:64 which are suitable for
any version of FreeBSD with a major version of '9'.  Although for best
results, you should be running a version (9.x-STABLE, 9,x-RELEASE) at
least as new as the oldest supported release with a 9.x version number.
 Currently that's 9.1-RELEASE.

Updated packages for 9.x release will be provided for as long as there
are still supported versions of 9.x available.  The packages will be
built on the earliest still-supported 9.x-RELEASE, which will be
9.3-RELEASE towards the end of 9.x lifetime in December 2016[*].  These
should probably still work on earlier releases, but no guarantees.

	Cheers,

	Matthew

[*] http://www.freebsd.org/security/security.html#sup

-- 
Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil.
PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey


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