Re: Time to change defaults for PKG_DBDIR

[David Brownlee <abs%absd.org@localhost>]

On Mon, 2 May 2022 at 13:21, Greg Troxel <gdt%lexort.com@localhost> wrote:
>
>
> David Brownlee <abs%absd.org@localhost> writes:
>
> >> My proposal basically amounts to
> >>
> >>   remove magic from pkg_install (that changes behavior)
> >>
> >>   replace with magic that errors out
> >>
> >>   users, especially those who are on NetBSD 8 and 9 and have not updated
> >>   to stable after about January 2021, continue to have the
> >>   responsibility to read the migration page and follow the
> >>   instructions.  As far as I know the instructions do work if followed.
> >
> > If we're happy with requiring users with working /var/db/pkg setups to
> > make a change, then I'm 100% happy with this variant (I opened the
> > thread with the basis of something similar, but then was exploring how
> > to not disrupt those users)
>
> My view is that in making the original change to PKG_DBDIR, and in doing
> so without a fully-baked compat plan, we already decided that it was ok
> to require people to cope.  We have been essentially requiring users to
> pay attention to this for over a year, and dropping compat and making it
> instead be a fatal error is consistent with that.  A user coping is just
> adding 1 line to two pkg_install.conf files for binary installs, and a
> third -- which I suspect is really not necessary -- to mk.conf.
>
> > I assume we have to tell users to set PKG_DBDIR in both
> > /etc/pkg_install.conf and $PREFIX/etc/pkg_install.conf , and that the
> > error can include a link to the migration page :)
>
> Yes, but each pkg_add could say
>
>   ERROR: PKG_DBDIR is not explicitly set in @etcdir@/pkg-install.conf
>   and /var/db/pkg exists.  See
>   http://pkgsrc.org/pkgdb-change/#set-PKG_DBDIR for instructions.
>
> which lets us spiff up the instructions when we find new oddness,
> without fixing the sources.  If someone can tell me how to set the id
> property in html in our flavor of markdown, that can be a smoother
> experience -- but it works as it is.
>
> Have you checked the binary packages?   The other thing we really need
> to do is make sure there are no binary package sets with /var/db/pkg.

macppc binary packages currently have /var/db/pkg, which triggered
this thread. Probably worth a heads up to NetBSD bulk builders to
check they do not have PKG_DBDIR=/var/db/pkg anywhere

David