pkg_add/ftp hangs when there are dependencies

[Louis Guillaume <louis%zabrico.com@localhost>]

Hi,

pkg_add hangs when PKG_PATH is set to a path on an ftp server and there 
is at least one dependency.

I've noticed this happening often since libfetch was introduced. For 
example, on a newly installed NetBSD-5_STABLE system (from sources ~ 
Oct. 8th):

# pkg_add tiff

<hangs>

Tiff requires jpeg.

# pkg_add jpeg

Success.

# pkg_add tiff

Success.


From what I can tell this is 100% reproducible on several platforms 
including AIX, Linux, NetBSD and Mac OS X. However I've only verified 
this many times on Linux and NetBSD.

I've tried with the NetBSD package repository and with local ones. 
AFAICT there are no open PRs for this. Should I enter one?

After googling it seems there are 2 workarounds: one to use http, which 
is not reasonable if we don't have an http service for packages. The 
other is to use pkgin, which is not acceptable if we don't already have 
any packages installed.

This is a major obstacle to "normal" package installation. Please advise.

Louis