Yeah. There is a snapshot download for each commit. One of the beauties of git is that commits aren't diffs they are complete snapshots.
This basically boils down to having an SSH connection into the machine that has a barebones install, then you can copy-paste hashes (that you hunt down) into the SSH window.
I was expecting some clever solution to the scenario of having only the barebones install, without the SSH connection (No cheating by using the old-school method of pen, paper, and carefully keying in the hash you actually wrote down)!
% pwd
/tmp
% sudo mkdir /usr/timing
% time fetch https://cgit.freebsd.org/src/snapshot/main.tar.gz
fetch: https://cgit.freebsd.org/src/snapshot/main.tar.gz: size of remote file is not known
main.tar.gz 256 MB 2792 kBps 01m34s
1.439u 1.719s 1:34.99 3.3% 20+171k 14+0io 0pf+0w
% time sudo tar -xf main.tar.gz --strip-components 2 -C /usr/timing
ntp/scripts/ntptrace: Can't replace existing directory with non-directory
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors.
4.260u 6.797s 0:21.34 51.7% 41+168k 475+107478io 0pf+0w
% cd /usr/timing/ntp/scripts/
% file ntptrace
ntptrace: directory
%
First of all, the deprecation wasn't announced but suggested. The technical arguments to do so are valid, so I'd expect this to happen some time in the future – but so far, it didn't happen. Portsnap is still there and supported in 13, we will see whether this will still be the case in 14.
If you are downloading a release wouldn't the ports tree be frozen from the release date?
--strip-components 2 seems to be the problem.% pwd
/tmp
% mkdir huh
% tar -xf main.tar.gz -C huh
% rm -r huh
% mkdir huh
% tar -xf main.tar.gz --strip-components 2 -C huh
ntp/scripts/ntptrace: Can't replace existing directory with non-directory
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors.
% rm -r huh
%You asked about "bootstrapping". So, you have an initial ports tree, it's bootstrapped. If you need any tool to keep it updated, you can build it from this initial ports tree.
pkg audit -F on a new base system install, after extracting a snashot of the ports tree.Portsnap is actually in base FreeBSD....
Yes, the question was for how much longer. I said for ever and ever just like always and stay the same because Beasite is my Bestie and don't fix what isn't broken applies. I don't mind if they delete every text reference in print or how much it costs, as long as command not found what I find returned when I invoke the portsnap command. If it does I will adapt and survive.
stable/13:
main example:
In fact, portsnap is arguably broken. Ever since introduction of quarterly branches, portsnap not supporting them was considered a missing feature, and you could rightfully say for a "canonical" tool for users to maintain their local ports tree, this qualifies as "broken".
I disagree... I like portsnap's simplicity. Just pay attention to the dates, capture a timely snapshot, save it elsewhere. If you want to get fancy, start grepping for quarterly announcements, and then daisy-chain that to portsnap, and automate the whole capture process using just the base tools.
I would think that this is the UNIX way of doing things root@bakemono:/ # portsnap fetch update
Looking up portsnap.FreeBSD.org mirrors... 4 mirrors found.
Fetching snapshot tag from ipv4.aws.portsnap.freebsd.org... done.
Fetching snapshot metadata... done.
Updating from Wed Sep 1 11:12:42 CDT 2021 to Sun Sep 5 15:43:22 CDT 2021.
Fetching 5 metadata patches... done.
Applying metadata patches... done.
Fetching 0 metadata files... done.
Fetching 594 patches.
(594/594) 100.00% done. .
done.
Applying patches...
done.
Fetching 8 new ports or files... done.
Removing old files and directories... done.
Extracting new files:
.......
Building new INDEX files... done.
root@bakemono:/ # pkg audit -F
vulnxml file up-to-date
0 problem(s) in 0 installed package(s) found.
root@bakemono:/ # freebsd-update fetch
Looking up update.FreeBSD.org mirrors... 2 mirrors found.
Fetching metadata signature for 12.2-RELEASE from update1.freebsd.org... done.
Fetching metadata index... done.
Inspecting system... done.
Preparing to download files... done.
No updates needed to update system to 12.2-RELEASE-p10.
root@bakemono:/ #ports-mgmt/portsnap only bootstraps the main branch which, afaik, you're then stuck with. Fetching and untaring a quartely branch snapshot seems to be the only way to bootstrap quarterly ports from the base system.
git at all other than git isn't in the base system.07 Jan 2009 21:34:27 - Remove portsnap port, it's now integrated into the base systemThen what's going on here?
root@bakemono:/ # portsnap fetch update
Looking up portsnap.FreeBSD.org mirrors... 4 mirrors found.
Fetching snapshot tag from ipv4.aws.portsnap.freebsd.org... done.
Fetching snapshot metadata... done.
Updating from Wed Sep 1 11:12:42 CDT 2021 to Sun Sep 5 15:43:22 CDT 2021.
Fetching 5 metadata patches... done.
Applying metadata patches... done.
Fetching 0 metadata files... done.
Fetching 594 patches.
(594/594) 100.00% done. .
done.
Applying patches...
done.
Fetching 8 new ports or files... done.
Removing old files and directories... done.
Extracting new files:That's the way it's worked for me since 2005.
It is for me.
Well, kind of my words, and it's nice to see you do not follow this somewhat common misconception. There's one way this is slightly (and indirectly!) related to git: The move to git was a good opportunity to bring up the topic
This fetches the latest ports (from the main branch). Again: portsnap never supported quarterly. And yes, that's a serious issue.
Not sure what you're trying to show with that? Yes, fetching latest(!) ports with portsnap (still) works. It still works because obviously, some people opposed to getting rid of it more quickly, and as a result, the team had to do all the work to adapt portsnap's backend after switching to git – only to get a tool that does a little part of what git (or svn) can do in a less efficient (more disk space incl metadata, slower speed) way…
I don't see why exactly... If you pay attention to the quarterly announcements, and do timely snapshots, it shouldn't be too much of an issue. I say, keep it simple. You want fancy, use git. To bootstrap, just use pkg to install it as the VERY FIRST THING, then install absolutely nothing else using pkg, and then stick to using git for dear life.