Re: pkg_chk likes obsolete packages

["Mike M. Volokhov" <mike.volokhov%gmail.com@localhost>]

Jul 22, 2012, 1:36 AM, David Brownlee wrote:

> On 18 July 2012 23:42, Mike M. Volokhov <mike.volokhov%gmail.com@localhost> 
> wrote:
>> Hi,
>> 
>> I found that pkgtools/pkg_chk doesn't pay attention if available
>> binary package older than already installed one.  It results in
>> a weird attempt to install obsolete packages.  For example:
> 
> Its not so much that it likes obsolete packages, as that it tries to
> ensure the installed packages exactly match what is in the binary
> package set (or in the pkgsrc tree). There have been a couple of times
> when I have depended on that behaviour of replacing a 'newer'
> installed version with what is in the pointed to pkgsrc tree
> 
> However, I can definitely see a use case for your patch. I really
> don't want to add another option to pkg_chk, but maybe this deserves
> one...
> 
> Hmm, I could repurpose -B (Check the "Build version" of packages) to
> mean "exactly match build version and even downgrade), and have your
> modified behaviour as the default (though I'm not sure about
> conflating the two behaviours of downgrading and checking build
> version).
> 
> What do you think?

Having newer packages is essentially good.  But newer packages may
broke dependency tree for older, but perhaps more consistent
repository.  For example, you have png-1.5 installed, but older
packages may rely on png-1.4, and 1.5 will not satisfy that
requirement.  The underlying question is what is better to trust:
installed packages, or the packages in depot.  It greatly depends,
I say.

So, I'd keep newer packages, and force discrepancy elimination with a
pkg_chk option.  The -B looks like exactly such an option - i.e. it
could force syncing to the depot, no matter is it older or newer than
installed packages.

--
Mishka.