Re: repositories.conf (and64 and x86_64)

[Havard Eidnes <he%NetBSD.org@localhost>]

>>http://cdn.NetBSD.org/pub/pkgsrc/packages/NetBSD/amd64/9.3/All
>>http://cdn.NetBSD.org/pub/pkgsrc/packages/NetBSD/amd64/9.2/All
>>http://cdn.NetBSD.org/pub/pkgsrc/packages/NetBSD/amd64/9.1/All
>>http://cdn.NetBSD.org/pub/pkgsrc/packages/NetBSD/amd64/9.0_2023Q1/All
>
> Unfortunately the NetBSD project does not expose the branch in all
> cases, which may be contributing to this confusion, as it's not clear
> to the user what branch e.g. the top 3 URLs here are using, and
> whether the 9.0_2023Q1 repository is actually newer.

True, the project doesn't require you to specify the branch if
you just want to use what's more-or-less "recommended", and go
with the upgrade once the symlinks are updated to point to the
build results for a new branch.

For those capable of still using the "ftp" program, you can look
a bit under the hood about what e.g. 9.3 points to:

ftp ftp.netbsd.org
cd pub/pkgsrc/packages/NetBSD/amd64
dir
...
drwxrwxr-x  3 1449  netbsd  512 Feb 16  2022 .9.0-current-2022-08-14-13.01
lrwxr-xr-x  1 1524  netbsd   11 Jan  4 13:13 10.0 -> 10.0_2022Q4
drwxrwxr-x  3 1524  netbsd  512 Dec 20 10:39 10.0_2022Q3
drwxrwxr-x  3 1524  netbsd  512 Dec 20 10:39 10.0_2022Q4
lrwxr-xr-x  1 1357  netbsd   10 Mar 28 12:52 8.0 -> 8.0_2022Q4
drwxrwxr-x  3 601   netbsd  512 Dec  8  2022 8.0_2022Q3
drwxrwxr-x  3 601   netbsd  512 Mar 15 18:38 8.0_2022Q4
drwxrwxr-x  3 601   netbsd  512 Apr 29 06:35 8.0_2023Q1
lrwxr-xr-x  1 601   netbsd    3 Jun  5  2019 8.1 -> 8.0
lrwxr-xr-x  1 1214  netbsd    3 Apr  2  2020 8.2 -> 8.0
lrwxr-xr-x  1 1357  netbsd   10 Mar 28 12:52 9.0 -> 9.0_2022Q4
drwxrwxr-x  3 1524  netbsd  512 Jun 27  2022 9.0_2022Q3
drwxrwxr-x  3 601   netbsd  512 Mar 14 00:30 9.0_2022Q4
drwxrwxr-x  3 601   netbsd  512 Jun  9 06:29 9.0_2023Q1
lrwxr-xr-x  1 1449  netbsd   29 Aug 23  2022 9.0_current -> .9.0-current-2022-08-14-13.01
lrwxr-xr-x  1 1524  netbsd    3 Sep 29  2021 9.1 -> 9.0
lrwxr-xr-x  1 1524  netbsd    3 Sep 29  2021 9.2 -> 9.0
lrwxr-xr-x  1 1524  netbsd    3 Aug  6  2022 9.3 -> 9.0
-rw-rw-r--  1 1115  netbsd  271 Mar 25 13:48 README
...

So 9.1, 9.2, 9.3 and 9.0 are the same, which goes along with our
intention of maintaining binary compatibility for the minor
releases (9.x) sharing a major version number (9).

Here we can also see that 9.0 points to the 2022Q4 branch, so
9.0_2023Q1 would indeed be packages from a newer pkgsrc branch.

Locally configuring the branch name in your repositories.conf URL
shifts the maintenance burden from the project to yourself for
updating this when a new branch becomes available, but also gives
you the chance to override what's provided as the default, and
gives you more local control over e.g. when to switch from one
branch to the next.

As can be seen above, we do not keep very many package branch
build results available at the same time, so if you are
in-attentive, you may after a year "fall off the cliff", so to
speak, in that the branch you have configured locally is no
longer available.

Regards,

- Håvard