Solved Some packages do not receive updates

freezr

freezr

Hello,

I hope the title is enough clear.

I have a question just to understand the mechanism... I setup my repo to be on the latest branch, I noticed that some software receive regulars updates and others do not. For instance Firefox and Thunderbird receive regular updates but other software like Lagrange is staled at 1.7.3, I am pretty sure it received regular updates for a while but now it missed more or less eight further releases; as a matter of fact the one available on the repo and ports is 1.7.3 while the latest release by the dev is 1.10.1.

I had the mistake assumption that while packages follow a slow pace the ports were more aligned with the upstream version but, in case of Lagrange, both package and ports are at the same version: 1.7.3.

Is there a general criteria on how a software is released or updated or it depends by the maintainers and their individual commitments?

Thanks in advance!

tgl
 
tgl said:
Is there also a reason why the ports collection doesn't follow upstream?
Click to expand...
A port requires a maintainer to keep it up to date. This isn't some 'automatic' process, it's also not done by FreeBSD developers but by hundreds of volunteers. And there are also dozens of ports that don't have a maintainer.

tgl said:
I had the mistake assumption that while packages follow a slow pace the ports were more aligned with the upstream version but, in case of Lagrange, both package and ports are at the same version: 1.7.3.
Click to expand...
Packages follow the ports tree (either main aka latest or the quarterly branches). If the port is updated the package will follow.
 
A lot of times, port (and pkgs) follow upstream; but it still takes time to verify that the packages will compile and run correctly. A prime example of an package that is very troublesome to update is the texlive packages. That package rarely works straight out of the box (that is on both linux and Freebsd sides); so it takes a large amount of work just to get it to compile and run; not counting all the dependencies need to also be checked and verify it doesn't break something else.
 
You (and anyone else) is also welcome to help the maintainers out. You can check see if there is a bug report letting the maintainer know if there is a new version out. There is also the part of updating the port on your system and try compiling see if it works. If the maintainer knows, there isn't much work to update the package they can do any other check they need and get it out faster.
 
tgl said:
Thank you guys now understand better the process!
Click to expand...

If you like, add the Solved prefix to your topic.


A recent example of an update that was a little later than usual:

forums.freebsd.org

Solved - How long does it take for the latest Firefox appear in the FreeBSD repos ?

When I copied my old .mozilla folder (Arch Linux) to my FreeBSD home and launched Firefox it complained that the installed version of Firefox is too old. When I visit the Mozilla website the version available for download (for Linux & Windows) is 96.0.2. This is the version that I was using...
forums.freebsd.org forums.freebsd.org

www/firefox is maintained by gecko@ – see <https://lists.freebsd.org/archives/freebsd-gecko/>. Comments at and under <https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=261410#c1> offer a glimpse into the complexities that sometimes surround a minor update.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top