/var/db/pkg deleted

[sk8harddiefast]

How to recreate the db? My packages exist on my system but db have none record of them. Also can not rebuilt my packages (logical because db find 0 packages). Any idea?

 

[SirDice]

Tricky, did that once too when I first started with FreeBSD. As far as I know there's no way to recreate the database except to install everything again from the start.

 

[sk8harddiefast]

Are you joking right? Ok. I think I have veeery hard work to do!!!!! And how I know all my system packages?

pkg_info | grep *

return 0 results. And installing a package is not installing all his dependencies too because already they exist on system. Now I am really stack! Well. That is something that is missing from FreeBSD. A tool to recreate the db!

 

[SirDice]

Are you joking right? Ok.

Nope, you are basically SOL x(

And how I know all my system packages?

pkg_info | grep *

return 0 results.

Memory?

And installing a package is not installing all his dependencies too because already they exist on system. Now I am really stuck! Well. That is something that is missing from FreeBSD. A tool to recreate the db!

I ended up reinstalling the box from scratch. For the umpteenth time, I remember doing that a lot when I started out with FreeBSD :e

 

[vermaden]

How to recreate the db? My packages exist on my system but db have none record of them. Also can not rebuilt my packages (logical because db find 0 packages). Any idea?

You cant ... write all app names that You use/need in some file, then remove all installed stuff and add them again:

# vi apps
# rm -rf /usr/local /var/db/pkg
# while read I
> do
>   pkg_add -r ${I}
> done < apps
#

 

[wblock@]

Are you joking right? Ok. I think I have veeery hard work to do!!!!! And how I know all my system packages?

pkg_info | grep *

return 0 results. And installing a package is not installing all his dependencies too because already they exist on system. Now I am really stack! Well. That is something that is missing from FreeBSD. A tool to recreate the db!

In theory, you could write a program that would go through $PREFIX and look up files in the pkg-plist files in ports.

In practice, many ports generate dynamic plists, and it would still require looping through every single port in /usr/ports. Maybe there's a better way, like a master plist that shows the origin of every file. The port-building clusters might have that, at least in their /var/db/pkg, but it's probably not available for download. (If you use ports-mgmt/portupgrade, you might be able to get the installed-ports list from its separate /var/db/pkg/pkgdb.db. No real idea how.)

Practical options are:

1. Back up /usr/local/etc, delete /usr/local, and start reinstalling.

2. Keep using the system, installing a port when you find it isn't listed in pkg_info output but you know the files are present. Eventually/hopefully/maybe you'll get everything replaced.

3. Post the question on the -ports mailing list, because more than a few people have experienced it, and maybe there is a way.

 

[sk8harddiefast]

Nope, you are basically SOL

I am just kidding. What means SOL?
Format solved my problem. Now I am trying OpenCDE

 

[mk]

sh`t out of luck->sol

 

[_martin]

Well, same old story - you should keep a backup.

But to say something useful too: I did put a cron script on my systems which does a daily system check. Nothing special - it prints kernel version, installed packages, fstab contents, network info, etc.

I do keep them stored in /var/log/bsd/checkconfig/ directory so I can check the system status from days before.
I must say this information came in handy many times.

 

[DutchDaemon]

At the very least (if you don't have backups, that is) you should run a command like [cmd=]portmaster --list-origins > ~root/ports.today[/cmd] or [cmd=]pkg_info -aoq > ~root/ports.today[/cmd] once a day from root's crontab.