jail update with -m src=path method leaves old stale files in the jail src copy

[bugsbeastie]

Prerequisites

• Have you checked for an existing issue describing your problem?
• Are you running the latest version?
  poudriere-devel-3.4.99.20251213
• Is your ports tree recent?
  Ports top-level git hash: 27fa8e7879a65e89aad6f3a711eac114b472973b
• Is your FreeBSD Host on a supported release?
  FreeBSD 16.0-CURRENT #0 main-n282851-2f83319214d9: Sun Jan 4 23:57:33 CET 2026

Background

With the pkgbase method of managing the base FreeBSD system, poudriere is an attractive tool to build pkgbase packages (together with ports packages).

poudriere jail already has both -b and -B options to build the base system from sources and package pkgbase packages.

Managing both the ports and src trees outside poudriere has benefits (one can have a full git log history in the host, but copy only latest trees into the poudriere jails). Then, using -m src=/usr/src method is the way to go.

The bug (I strongly believe)

It is natural to update the host trees using git pull and then to update the jails using poudriere jail -u -j JID -K "" -b -B -JN.

However, the subroutine install_from_src() is only doing the straight copy of the src tree from the host into the jail, without cleaning the old version in the jail:

...
msg_n "Copying ${SRC_BASE} to ${JAILMNT}/usr/src..."
mkdir -p ${JAILMNT}/usr/src
...
[cpignore logic]
...
do_clone -r ${cpignore_flag} "${SRC_BASE:?}" "${JAILMNT:?}/usr/src"
...

Expected behavior

I think nuking the old src tree from the jail before the copy is the way to go here:

rm -R "${JAILMNT:?}/usr/src"

[bugsbeastie]

Thank you for the great tool, BTW! 👍

[bdrewery]

This would do it less harshly.

diff --git src/share/poudriere/jail.sh src/share/poudriere/jail.sh
index dc854627e..2cf7f2ebd 100755
--- src/share/poudriere/jail.sh
+++ src/share/poudriere/jail.sh
@@ -643,7 +643,7 @@ install_from_src() {
                .svn
                EOF
        fi
-       do_clone -r ${cpignore_flag} "${SRC_BASE:?}" "${JAILMNT:?}/usr/src"
+       do_clone_del -r ${cpignore_flag} "${SRC_BASE:?}" "${JAILMNT:?}/usr/src"
        if [ -n "${cpignore}" ]; then
                rm -f "${cpignore}"
        fi

It requires this change too which I'll commit separately. Not convinced on the /usr/src sync yet.

diff --git src/share/poudriere/include/fs.sh src/share/poudriere/include/fs.sh
index fa697b209..bd897b4dd 100644
--- src/share/poudriere/include/fs.sh
+++ src/share/poudriere/include/fs.sh
@@ -153,7 +153,11 @@ do_clone() {
 do_clone_del() {
        [ $# -ge 2 ] || eargs do_clone_del [-r] [-x | -X cpignore ] src dst

-       _do_clone "-s0 -f" "$@"
+       _do_clone "-s0" "$@"
 }

 rollback_file() {

[bugsbeastie]

This would do it less harshly.

You are a gentleman! :)

It requires this change too which I'll commit separately. Not convinced on the /usr/src sync yet.

OK, I did some testing, all local changes in the jail's src are away after the update!
I suppose that if you want to have local changes to the src tree, you use the -P option?
Or you store them outside the jail (and therefore using -m src=path method).
So that everything works as expected now?

With your changes it is now (almost) possible to do (after git pull outside the jail):
poudriere jail -u -j 16amd64 -K "" -b -B -J 4
to build a new set of pkgbase packages!
After the update of the build machine with these packages, you proceed to building the updated set of ports packages! ;)

P.S. The showstopper now is the combination of -J 4 and -B flags. Somehow, the debug symbols for the GENERIC kernel are packaged twice and in parallel, which results in a broken
pkg archive file. Have not nailed it down yet, if it is a problem in the src tree, or in the poudriere...

[bugsbeastie]

Status update

As of FreeBSD-CURRENT pull-ed on 2026 Feb 23 19:41 UTC (b4305c90a3be n284160)
poudriere jail -j 16amd64 -u -K "" -b -B -J 4 works as expected updating the jail from sources and producing a complete set of pkgbase packages!
After updating the host with these packages you can do poudriere bulk ... to produce the set of updated ports packages!
Very straightforward workflow!

KUDOS to everyone involved! 🥇

[bugsbeastie]

Status update

As of poudriere-devel-3.4.99.20260218 the fs.sh patch is not needed anymore!
I still have applied jail.sh patch.
poudriere jail -j 16amd64 -u -K "" -b -B -J 4 works in jails where Jail pkgbase is enabled, as in:

Jail name:         16amd64
Jail version:      16.0-CURRENT 1600012
Jail arch:         amd64
Jail method:       src=/usr/src
Jail mount:        /usr/local/poudriere/jails/16amd64
Jail fs:           zroot/poudriere/jails/16amd64
Jail kernel:       GENERIC
Jail updated:      2026-03-07 23:04:28
Jail pkgbase:      enabled

FreeBSD-CURRENT on this machine is: 1e4086d05297 n284391 2026 Mar 6 22:33 UTC

P.S. The version of poudriere is still lagging behind, because it is been built together with a bunch of other 763 packages required for the actual desktop! Will try with the latest poudriere-devel without patches next time (in a few days :)

[bugsbeastie]

Status update

As of poudriere-devel-3.4.99.20260303 the jail.sh patch is still needed! Without it there are stale files left in the jail's /usr/src copy!
FreeBSD-CURRENT is: 6580d040861d n284536 2026 Mar 17 01:33 UTC

Why don't you like the proposed approach?
Or, from the other side, how would you update jails with src=path build method?

Thank you for the patches anyway! 👍