Default repository changed to quarterly in 10.2

zsero

zsero

The release notes for 10.2 mention at the very bottom that:

The default pkg(8) repository set in /etc/pkg/FreeBSD.conf now defaults to the quarterly package set. To use the latest branch (as was the previous default), the comment at the top of /etc/pkg/FreeBSD.conf explains how to disable the default repository and specify an alternative repository. [r285830] (Sponsored by The FreeBSD Foundation)
​
Which I believe is the most important change in this release and there is barely any information about it.

My questions:
1. Why did it happen, what is the reason behind it? Many people preferred FreeBSD because of the always up-to-date packages. Is it like a mini-LTS?

2. What does it mean about security updates? Are they backported from latest to quarterly? If so, how frequently are they released? Which Q releases do they support (only the latest one?)

3. When upgrading from stock 10.1, will pkg(8) be on latest or quarterly?

Finally, the information which is missing from the release notes and the comment in /etc is how to set it back to latest is found in this HN comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10058580

That is: create a file /usr/local/etc/pkg/repos/FreeBSD.conf with the following content:
Code: 
FreeBSD: {
url: "pkg+http://pkg.FreeBSD.org/${ABI}/latest"
}

I'm a newcomer to FreeBSD but I find it very surprising that this big change is barely mentioned at the bottom of the release notes and the correct code for changing back to latest is not mentioned neither in the release notes nor in the /etc comment.
 
So my local installed version is now ahead of the remote repository. Great, I am sure this won't cause trouble anywhere.
So much for being stable.
 
I think you "forgot" to enable the repository (or isn't it neccessary?)
Code: 
FreeBSD: {
url: "pkg+http://pkg.FreeBSD.org/${ABI}/latest",
mirror_type: "srv",
signature_type: "fingerprints",
fingerprints: "/usr/share/keys/pkg",
enabled: yes
}

Regards
Markus
 
storvi_net said:
I think you "forgot" to enable the repository (or isn't it neccessary?)
Click to expand...

Nope. Read the pkg.conf(5) man page.

The repository tag myrepo is an arbitrary string. Reusing the repository
tag will cause those items defined in configuration files later on the
REPOS_DIR search path to overwrite the equivalent settings for the same
tag earlier on the search path. Hence the very common idiom, used to
turn off the default FreeBSD configuration shipped in
/etc/pkg/FreeBSD.conf. Rather than editing that file directly, create
/usr/local/etc/pkg/repos/FreeBSD.conf with this content:

FreeBSD: { enabled: NO }

Repositories are processed in the order they are found on the REPOS_DIR
search path, with individual repository configuration files in the same
directory processed in alphabetical order. Settings from files later in
the search path will override those from earlier ones.
Click to expand...

In other words, you don't need to (and probably shouldn't) copypaste everything from /etc/pkg/FreeBSD.conf in /usr/local/etc/pkg/repos/FreeBSD.conf. /etc/pkg/FreeBSD.conf defines the repo, enables it, sets the mirror type, etc, and everything in it still applies. He's just overriding the url attribute in /usr/local/etc/pkg/repos/FreeBSD.conf.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Thanks for the very useful info. I had completely missed this on my first upgrade to FreeBSD 10.2 from 10.1. After merging groups and device hints I immediately did a pkg upgrade and I saw a lot of complaints about "ABI" and had mistakenly thought that was due to the minor FreeBSD upgrade, but, alas my packages were ahead of the quarterly repo. Needles to say the operating system started failing almost immediately and on my next reboot Xorg did not restart. Yes, completely obliterated my OS by missing this. Someone should place more emphasis on this change in the errata.
 
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