# How to upgrade packages with packages and ports with ports?



## stuntgp2000 (Mar 3, 2010)

Hi,

I'm new to FreeBSD, I downloaded and tried FreeBSD v8.0 for about two weeks now. I played with PC-BSD 7 before and it encouraged me to give FreeBSD another try. The last time I tried FreeBSD it was on v5.4, at that time I was still a new comer to Free and Open Source world. I've switched full-time to GNU/Linux since 2006 and I'm a Arch Linux user since mid 2008.

I've played PC-BSD 8.0 for a while but unfortunately it wasn't as polished as 7.0, maybe 8.1 will do better. But why wait for PC-BSD 8.1 when I can install FreeBSD 8.0 and customized to my needs!? and I've done just that

FreeBSD (v8.0) is a great operation system, it has excellent documentation and provide some advanced features. It was made to server.

Back to topic now. I did two installs, in the first I installed KDE 4.3, Firefox, GIMP etc using packages then decided to upgrade everything using Ports. It took 30 hours to finish on a 2.6Ghz, no big deal if it was going to be once in few months but that's not the case. KDE 4.4 for instance was released less than 3 weeks now and at the moment I'm writing this 4.4.1 was released. So I think grabbing everything from source and compiling it every now and then is not suitable for a single user using a single machine. I'm not criticizing here, it just not what I needed. Afterward, I did the second install this time using only packages and XFCE4 instead of KDE, so far so good but then again I used ports to install flash player and its deps and VBox-ose-additions and its deps.

1. Is there a way to upgrade applications, which were installed using packages, only by packages when they become available ?

2. Is there a way to let portupgrade or any other tool to specifically upgrade applications installed using ports without touching the ones that were installed using packages ?

It would be great if I can do that.

I'm sorry for this long post, thanks in advance for those who'll take the time to answer my questions. I'm honestly will to use FreeBSD no matter what it takes or costs.

Regards,

Med


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## DutchDaemon (Mar 3, 2010)

Portupgrade doesn't differentiate between ports and packages once they're installed. Use the -PP flag to use packages only, or the -P flag to use a port when a newer package isn't available. You need to have an up-to-date ports tree. Alternatively, use the sysutils/bsdadminscripts port/package, which contains a package upgrade script that doesn't need the ports tree. This information has been posted quite a few times now, as recent as earlier today. Use the Search function next time. And post in the correct forum ("Installation and Maintenance of FreeBSD Ports or Packages" should be a no-brainer ...).


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## stuntgp2000 (Mar 3, 2010)

Concerning bsdadminscripts I didn't find any good answer, just hints which seems like it's not the way to go.

Anyway, thanks for pointing that out.


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## phoenix (Mar 3, 2010)

Really?  I've only read good things about pkg_upgrade, which is part of the bsdadminscripts port.  The rest of the port may not be useful, but pkg_upgrade certainly is.


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## gryzor (Jan 18, 2011)

Greetings, 

I am fairly new to FreeBSD too, and I have a suggestion to make : please let the handbook tell newbies about pkg_upgrade. Currently (from what I noticed) it seems the handbook only explains how to upgrade ports, not packages; and this is a bit confusing.

gryzor


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## SirDice (Jan 18, 2011)

gryzor said:
			
		

> I am fairly new to freebsd too, and I have a suggestion to make : please let the handbook tell newbies about pkg_upgrade. Currently (from what I noticed) it seems the handbook only explains how to upgrade ports, not packages; and this is a bit confusing.


The confusion stems from not realizing that a package and a port are actually the same thing once they are installed. The only difference is how they are installed. The preferred and recommended way is to use ports, not packages.


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## chatzki (Aug 26, 2013)

Thanks a million for revealing pkg_upgrade to me. I knew there should be a convenient and wise solution, but I couldn't expect it would be so easy to use.


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