replace critical error into warning when package is not available in repositories

[vermaden]

I got pkg prime-list from one host and wanted to install these packages on other host.

HOSTA % pkg prime-list > ASD
HOSTA % scp ASD HOSTB:
HOSTB % doas pkg install $( cat ASD )
Updating FreeBSD-ports repository catalogue...
FreeBSD-ports repository is up to date.
Updating FreeBSD-ports-kmods repository catalogue...
FreeBSD-ports-kmods repository is up to date.
All repositories are up to date.
New version of pkg detected; it needs to be installed first.
Checking integrity... done (0 conflicting)
The following 1 package(s) will be affected (of 0 checked):

Installed packages to be UPGRADED:
        pkg: 2.4.2 -> 2.5.1 [FreeBSD-ports]

Number of packages to be upgraded: 1

The operation will free 24 MiB.

Proceed with this action? [y/N]: y
[1/1] Upgrading pkg from 2.4.2 to 2.5.1...
[1/1] Extracting pkg-2.5.1: 100%
Updating FreeBSD-ports repository catalogue...
FreeBSD-ports repository is up to date.
Updating FreeBSD-ports-kmods repository catalogue...
FreeBSD-ports-kmods repository is up to date.
All repositories are up to date.
pkg: No packages available to install matching 'clusterssh' have been found in the repositories
pkg: No packages available to install matching 'darling-dmg' have been found in the repositories
pkg: No packages available to install matching 'deltachat-desktop' have been found in the repositories
pkg: No packages available to install matching 'dialog4ports' have been found in the repositories
pkg: No packages available to install matching 'kf5-extra-cmake-modules' have been found in the repositories
pkg: No packages available to install matching 'linux-widevine-cdm' have been found in the repositories
pkg: No packages available to install matching 'sgrep' have been found in the repositories

... and I was critically 'exited' with information that SOME of the packages are missing in the repos.

Now this is the way to IGNORE them:

HOSTB % doas pkg install $( cat ASD | grep -v -e clusterssh -e darling-dmg -e deltachat-desktop -e dialog4ports -e kf5-extra-cmake-modules -e linux-widevine-cdm -e sgrep )

Which is ... a real PITA to be honest.

Please replace EXIT 1 behaviour when SOME packages are not available in the repos into WARNING list that SOME packages that are not available will not be installed.

Thanks,
vermaden

[bdrewery]

Why shouldn't this be an error? You took the "prime" list from 1 system to another and it failed. If you're trying to setup a system to match another, and it fails, why should that be ignored? It can't accomplish what you're asking it to do.

[vermaden]

Because of so MANY reasons.

There were more then 1200 packages ... and only these several were missing - that does not mean I do not want the other ones.

I do not have a problem with WARNING - but killing the pkg(8) process altogether is just so wrong.

We all know how pkg(8) infrastructure works ... sometimes packages build ... sometimes they not.

Besides ... the packages above are like removed from FreeBSD Ports or build from source or ... are packages from some third party repository OUT of official FreeBSD Ports tree (or pkg(8) repositories).

I am asking pkg(8) do do what its best with what we have - not to fail at the first sign of trouble because world is not a perfect place ...

[bdrewery]

All I care about is that pkg install exits fatally if some packages can't be installed. Not exiting early seems reasonable as long as it still exits >0 and clearly states not all packages could be installed.

[bapt]

this is a critical feature for many users using automation, for generating appliances, vm images and so one, while pkg used to behave the way @vermaden works, it has been explicitly requesting many time in the past that it would be better to fail early, so people have a chance to fix their automation, at first it then died very early in the process, but it has been changed to list all the failures.

We could imagine an option to change this default behaviour, but I am reluctant (but can be convinced otherwise) for now to add yet another option, there are already way too many variant in the code path which makes it harder and harder to maintain reliably the code base.

The case of duplicating a setup the way @vermaden sound pretty niche (as it does not happen very often) and imho this is fine if it can be done in 2 run: a first run where all the missing packages is listed, to allow the user to clean the list and then a second run.

Again this is not a strong no, but I would need more real life arguments to be convinced to change it.

[vermaden]

We can have a consensus for everyone with additional option.

Currently there is -M | --ignore-missing option ... but only for missing dependencies.

Would be nice to have the same for targets we specify - like -N | --ignore-missing-targets ... or something like that.

I already stated most reasons to have such option ... I can have several more but I believe one can imagine.

Regards,
vermaden

[Crest]

I would be hard pressed to find a usecase where installing all but a few randomly unavailable packages a good choice to make. I would rather have pkg blow up during the planning stage instead of making things worse e.g. uninstalling old versions or conflicts.