Installed ports are frequently uninstalled by PC-BSD

[SolarCatcher]

I am a bit puzzled because the handbook seems to indicate that I can normally use the ports collection to install software in PC-BSD when it is not available as PBI. This works ok, but frequently PC-BSD seems to uninstall the software I had installed via portmaster. I assume that this has to do with selecting/unselecting additional system packages through PCBSD control panel -> System Manager. This somehow seems to revert the system to its earlier state.

My question: Is this a feature I do not understand? Is this just a nuisance I have to live with? Or is this a real bug?

The ports I had installed and which (frequently) disappear are e.g.
ports-mgmt/portmaster
net-im/skype
graphics/optipng

Thanks to anyone for a clarification.

[purgatori]

I am a bit puzzled because the handbook seems to indicate that I can normally use the ports collection to install software in PC-BSD when it is not available as PBI. This works ok, but frequently PC-BSD seems to uninstall the software I had installed via portmaster. I assume that this has to do with selecting/unselecting additional system packages through PCBSD control panel -> System Manager. This somehow seems to revert the system to its earlier state.

My question: Is this a feature I do not understand? Is this just a nuisance I have to live with? Or is this a real bug?

The ports I had installed and which (frequently) disappear are e.g.
ports-mgmt/portmaster
net-im/skype
graphics/optipng

Thanks to anyone for a clarification.

Yep, I've encountered this problem myself. Once, even parts of LXDE were removed when I installed XFCE from the system manager.

[Tigersharke]

This is not really a bug.

Both system updates and system meta-pkg changes will cause anything installed via ports or packages to vanish. The small detail that may have been overlooked, is that the use of portjail (or a standard jail) prevents this side-effect. Meaning that if you want to build anything from ports, construct either type of jail and do your 'make install clean' from within it, and the same for FreeBSD packages.

Another way to prevent loss while also obtaining things you desire from the ports tree, is to create your own local PBI. This is simplified with EasyPBI, but still can have wrinkles to adjust, which means that some ports will happily build into a PBI, but may not function as desired. Either spend time figuring it out or just request that a PBI be built of that port.

I am rather certain that the side-effect was emphasized on the wiki for v9.1, and was mentioned in the v9.0 handbook but maybe not so blatantly.

[purgatori]

The side-effect doesn't particularly vex me (except when it uninstalled parts of LXDE), but if it did, I would not consider jails to be a particularly good solution. Getting stuff you've built in jails to speak/inter-operate with stuff outside of jails can sometimes be a frustrating mess. Sure, if you're building something just to mess around with it, all well and good, but if you intend to use it as part of your normal work-flow, you're bound to run into problems.

Building one's own PBIs is a much better solution, although it's not one I'm using myself. I simply request PBIs for the stuff I need, and maintain a list of the few components I have installed via packages, so that I can easily re-install them after an update.

[kmoore134]

Good news:

I'm about to commit a change to the package system, so it wont remove /
prune custom added ports/pkgs now. This will be in 9.1-RC1.

[purgatori]

Good news:

I'm about to commit a change to the package system, so it wont remove /
prune custom added ports/pkgs now. This will be in 9.1-RC1.

That is good news

[SolarCatcher]

Good news:

I'm about to commit a change to the package system, so it wont remove /
prune custom added ports/pkgs now. This will be in 9.1-RC1.

Hi Kris,

this sounds really promising. Unfortunately it comes too late for me. Due to the aforementioned problem, I decided to switch back to vanilla FreeBSD. As I really like the ideas underlying PC-BSD and because I see good development, I am sure I will give it another try in the future.

Until then: Thank you and all the best
SolarCatcher

[jwele]

This is fantastic news. Im used to freebsd since version 8 and ports uninstalling themselves sounds like bad news

[Digi-Quick]

Any News?
Version 9.1 is released, but:
ftp://ftp.pcbsd.org/pub/handbook/9.1...c2\xae_Updated

AND

ftp://ftp.pcbsd.org/pub/handbook/9.1...PC-BSD\xc2\xae

The Handbook for Verrsion 9.1 states again, That userinstalled ports and packages will be removed.
bye
Lothar