pkg/42001: package manager as always bugged

[nbsdold%gmx.net@localhost]

>Number:         42001
>Category:       pkg
>Synopsis:       package manager as always bugged
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       critical
>Priority:       high
>Responsible:    pkg-manager
>State:          open
>Class:          sw-bug
>Submitter-Id:   net
>Arrival-Date:   Sun Sep 06 18:25:02 +0000 2009
>Originator:     Nino
>Release:        5.0.1
>Organization:
(home user)
>Environment:
just plain standard 5.0.1, freshly installed on a fairly recent i386
>Description:
Dear Sir or Madam,

pkg_add from an ftp-site (ftp.netbsdd.org) mostly does not work - firstly, it 
stops reading the file at the ftp-site at some point (and my connection surely 
is fast enough, 7M/600k), so it broke off, then it could not delete some local 
files in /usr/pkg/share (again, with the consequence of breaking off), and 
finally, the "-f"-option is ignored. I tried to install vlc, and a dependency 
is missing there, however, in the past the -f option could be used to install 
it anyway. Now not even this works, as it is "insisting" on the missing 
dependency. - Please note, in the first case, when reading file off ftp, when 
it break, then trying again and again at some point can make installation 
possible.

Having a look at the mailing list of NetBSD users, I am apparently not the only 
one experiencing weirdness with the packaging system.

A little entirely non-critical bug is, too, that it now says "package was built 
for a platform" instead of "ANOTHER platform" when I install a package that is 
tagged for 5.0. (Here, I would like to kindly suggest to actually tag the 
packages correctly.)

Please do not assume hardware errors, as Windows, Linux, Solaris, FreeBSD, 
Plan9 and FreeDOS work just fine on my machine.

As a last side-note, thank you very much for extending and updating the 
packages collection, I really think you do an excellent job, if installing 
packages were actually possible. I discovered several very welcome surprises 
there.

Kind regards,

Nino
>How-To-Repeat:
Try installing vlc from the master site ftp.netbsd.org, and try using the -f 
switch. A lot of dependencies should cause difficulties (in particular things 
on which pulseaudio depends), and finally, the -f switch should be ignored and 
installation refused.
>Fix:
Broken dependencies CAN be installed, if installation of the breaking 
dependencies is attempted several times. No cure known for the ignored f-switch.