pkgsave use is overloaded

[igalic]

currently, .pkgsave has two use-cases:

1. replace a file on the filesystem if it wasn't in a package before
2. replace a configuration file it has been modified

i believe that the second use-case is flawed.

Most other packaging systems place the new file under a new extension.

Debian for instance will place new configuration files under /etc/foo/bar.conf.dpkg-new if non-interactive mode is enabled.

This is much, much more sensible. Especially considering vital files such as pkgbase's /etc/master.passwd and /etc/group.

This behaviour seems mostly limited to pkgbase, since in ports most config files don't actually exist, as only .sample files exist.

---

I propose that we change the behaviour and the extension for the second use-case:

we should place the new package's file as /etc/foo/bar.conf.pkgnew iif /etc/foo/bar.conf on disk differs from that file in new version of the package

[bdrewery]

:+1:. At the very least "pkgsave" is ambiguous and we need an "old" or "new" in there.

[Marietto2008]

Recently I had problems with the pkgsave files and I started a thread here :

https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/how-to-tell-freebsd-to-stop-producing-pkgsave-files.87645/

maybe you will find useful to give a look. Anyway,I didn't fix my problems.

[grahamperrin]

https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/how-to-tell-freebsd-to-stop-producing-pkgsave-files.87645

https://forums.freebsd.org/posts/594475 suggests:

…

find /usr/local -type f -name '*.pkgsave' | xargs rm -i

Now it's going to ask if you want to remove each file individually.

With bfs(1), I tried bfs /usr/local -type f -name '*.pkgsave' | xargs rm -i

• the result was not interactive.

Similarly, not interactive with find(1):

root@mowa219-gjp4-8570p-freebsd:~ # find /usr/local -type f -name '*.pkgsave' | xargs rm -i
load: 2.25  cmd: find 15653 [running] 285.93r 2.99u 13.22s 6% 12780k
load: 0.73  cmd: find 15653 [zio->io_cv] 409.98r 4.20u 20.15s 6% 12776k
remove /usr/local/sbin/automount.pkgsave? remove /usr/local/sbin/pkg-static.pkgsave? remove /usr/local/share/wifimgr/icons/icon.png.pkgsave? remove …

rm(1)

xargs(1)

[Marietto2008]

I know,some good scripts have been elaborated to fix the problem,but they should be executed after the problem happened. I think it should be fixed at the root.

[grahamperrin]

• the result was not interactive.

With exec(1) instead of xargs(1), and the different syntax:

root@mowa219-gjp4-8570p-freebsd:~ # sh
# bfs /usr/local -type f -name '*.pkgsave' -exec rm -i {} \;
remove /usr/local/sbin/automount.pkgsave? y
remove /usr/local/sbin/pkg-static.pkgsave? y
remove /usr/local/openssl/cert.pem.pkgsave? y
remove /usr/local/bin/pyserial-miniterm.pkgsave? y
remove /usr/local/bin/f2py3.pkgsave? y
remove /usr/local/bin/f2py.pkgsave? y
remove /usr/local/bin/wheel.pkgsave? y
remove /usr/local/bin/f2py3.8.pkgsave? y
remove /usr/local/bin/pyserial-ports.pkgsave? y
remove /usr/local/share/mime/globs.pkgsave? y
remove /usr/local/share/mime/XMLnamespaces.pkgsave? y
remove /usr/local/share/mime/version.pkgsave? y
remove /usr/local/share/mime/types.pkgsave? y
remove /usr/local/share/mime/subclasses.pkgsave? y
remove /usr/local/share/mime/globs2.pkgsave? y
remove /usr/local/share/mime/icons.pkgsave? y
remove /usr/local/share/mime/mime.cache.pkgsave? y
remove /usr/local/share/mime/magic.pkgsave? y
remove /usr/local/share/mime/treemagic.pkgsave? y
remove /usr/local/share/mime/aliases.pkgsave? y
remove /usr/local/share/mime/generic-icons.pkgsave? y
remove /usr/local/share/applications/mimeinfo.cache.pkgsave? y
remove /usr/local/etc/ssl/cert.pem.pkgsave? y
remove /usr/local/etc/man.d/dtrace-toolkit.conf.pkgsave? y
remove /usr/local/share/wifimgr/icons/icon.png.pkgsave? y
remove /usr/local/share/licenses/en-freebsd-doc-20210918,1/LICENSE.pkgsave? y
remove /usr/local/share/licenses/en-freebsd-doc-20210918,1/BSD2CLAUSE.pkgsave? y
remove /usr/local/share/licenses/en-freebsd-doc-20210918,1/catalog.mk.pkgsave? y
remove /usr/local/lib/python3.8/site-packages/pyparsing.py.pkgsave? y
remove /usr/local/lib/python3.8/site-packages/distutils-precedence.pth.pkgsave? y
remove /usr/local/lib/python3.7/site-packages/zipp.py.pkgsave? y
load: 0.70  cmd: bfs 17778 [zio->io_cv] 321.05r 1.45u 4.38s 5% 32168k
^C
# bfs /etc -type f -name '*.pkgsave' -exec rm -i {} \;
remove /etc/libmap.conf.pkgsave? y
# bfs /etc -type f -name '*.pkgsave' -exec rm -i {} \;
# bfs /lib -type f -name '*.pkgsave' -exec rm -i {} \;
remove /lib/libcxxrt.so.1.pkgsave? y
remove /lib/libssp.so.0.pkgsave? y
remove /lib/libncursesw.so.9.pkgsave? y
remove /lib/libc.so.7.pkgsave? y
remove /lib/libgcc_s.so.1.pkgsave? y
remove /lib/libedit.so.8.pkgsave? y
remove /lib/libm.so.5.pkgsave? y
remove /lib/libthr.so.3.pkgsave? y
# bfs /libexec -type f -name '*.pkgsave' -exec rm -i {} \;
remove /libexec/ld-elf.so.1.pkgsave? y
# bfs /jails -type f -name '*.pkgsave' -exec rm -i {} \;
remove /jails/thirteen/usr/local/sbin/pkg-static.pkgsave? y
# bfs /usr/lib -type f -name '*.pkgsave' -exec rm -i {} \;
remove /usr/lib/librt.so.1.pkgsave? y
remove /usr/lib/libc++.so.1.pkgsave? ^C
# bfs /usr/libexec -type f -name '*.pkgsave' -exec rm -i {} \;
# file /usr/libexec/ld-elf.so.1.pkgsave
/usr/libexec/ld-elf.so.1.pkgsave: symbolic link to ../../libexec/ld-elf.so.1
# bfs /usr/libexec -type l -name '*.pkgsave' -exec rm -i {} \;
remove /usr/libexec/ld-elf.so.1.pkgsave? y
# bfs /usr/libexec -type l -name '*.pkgsave' -exec rm -i {} \;
# ls -hln /libexec/ld-elf.so.1*
-r-xr-xr-x  1 0  0   117K Feb 19 02:32 /libexec/ld-elf.so.1
-r-xr-xr-x  1 0  0   117K Feb 17 22:33 /libexec/ld-elf.so.1.old
# exit
root@mowa219-gjp4-8570p-freebsd:~ # uname -aKU
FreeBSD mowa219-gjp4-8570p-freebsd 14.0-CURRENT FreeBSD 14.0-CURRENT #33 main-n261014-cd406ac94d8b: Sun Feb 19 01:35:14 GMT 2023     grahamperrin@mowa219-gjp4-8570p-freebsd:/usr/obj/usr/src/amd64.amd64/sys/GENERIC-NODEBUG amd64 1400081 1400081
root@mowa219-gjp4-8570p-freebsd:~ # pkg info -x sysutils/bfs
bfs-2.6.3
root@mowa219-gjp4-8570p-freebsd:~ # 

… et cetera.

[Marietto2008]

Instead of removing a lot of files by hand,I prefer this kind of solution :

https://forums.FreeBSD.org/threads/how-to-tell-freebsd-to-stop-producing-pkgsave-files.87645/post-594560

this is what I mean for "solving the problem at the root". But this is only an hack proposed by a system admin,not by a developer. I think it's a good idea if the discussion about what to do to fix the problem at the root can be developed further so that a final solution can be reached.

[igalic]

see https://reviews.freebsd.org/D27959 and https://reviews.freebsd.org/D27962

[Marietto2008]

Did you give to me two reviews that are identical ? anyway,is the fix ready ? can I patch that file (usr.sbin/kldxref/kldxref.c) and my problem will go away ?

[igalic]

sorry about the bad paste

i updated the comment. from my point of view, they are ready, but I don't know what's missing to get them landed

[Marietto2008]

Should I apply both patches or one only ? which one is better ?

[igalic]

rc: ignore .pkgsave files is easier to apply, and is the more generally useful one

[grahamperrin]

Spun off to a mail list:

• Removing .pkgsave files

The archived version is difficult to read (loss of formatting), you'll find a better version at https://people.freebsd.org/~grahamperrin/better/.

[Marietto2008]

They know what's the cause. There are two patches to try. Igalic says that he does not know why they haven't been accepted. Anyway,how the patch is supposed to work ? what should I do after having patched the file ? Maybe I should put in ignore list some files that I don't want to be duplicated ? if it works like this,I would like to know how to put in the ignore list every file that's executable. Can I do this ? For me its ok if it creates pkgsave files for the conf files. They can be useful. But if creates more copies of the executables,the system will break hardly.

[igalic]

first off, @igalic, as per their profile, goes by she (or they).

secondly, sometimes patches are just forgotten, it happens. i harbor no hard feelings about this, i, too, forgot about them.

and finally, you just gave me an idea of how to extend that patch further: have an rc.conf option that extends the ignore list

[bapt]

this number of pkgsave files have been drastrically reduced.