Re: git-clone(1) after base 3e8619e535b6 for /usr/ports subdirectories

On Sun, Feb 8, 2026 at 5:17 AM Marek Zarychta <[email protected]>
wrote:

> On 8.02.2026 12:51, Marek Zarychta wrote:
> > On 8.02.2026 04:46, Graham Perrin wrote:
> >> On 08/02/2026 03:17, Warner Losh wrote:
> >>
> >>> That only works if don't already have a ports tree. What's there?
> >>
> >>
> >> root@freebsd-16-amd64-qemu:~ # ls -hlR /usr/ports
> >>
> >> total 1.0 KB
> >> drwxr-xr-x  2 root wheel    2B Jan 19 19:37 distfiles
> >> drwxr-xr-x  2 root wheel    2B Jan 19 19:37 packages
> >>
> >> /usr/ports/distfiles:
> >> total 0 B
> >>
> >> /usr/ports/packages:
> >> total 0 B
> >> root@freebsd-16-amd64-qemu:~ # mount | grep ports
> >>
> >> zroot/usr/ports on /usr/ports (zfs, local, noatime, nosuid, nfsv4acls)
> >> zroot/usr/ports/distfiles on /usr/ports/distfiles (zfs, local,
> >> noatime, nosuid, nfsv4acls)
> >> zroot/usr/ports/packages on /usr/ports/packages (zfs, local, noatime,
> >> nosuid, nfsv4acls)
> >> root@freebsd-16-amd64-qemu:~ #
> >>
> >>
> > Hello Graham,
> >
> > my recommendation is to set WRKDIRPREFIX, DISTDIR, PACKAGES and
> > INDEXDIR (if you are using indexes) to the separate subtree as follows:
> >
> > #zfs destroy zroot/usr/ports/distfiles
> > #zfs destroy zroot/usr/ports/packages
> > #mkdir -p /var/ports/{distfiles,packages}
> > #cat <<EOF >> /etc/make.conf
> > WRKDIRPREFIX= /var/ports
> > DISTDIR= /var/ports/distfiles
> > PACKAGES= /var/ports/packages
> > INDEXDIR= /var/ports
> > EOF
> >
> > The above configuration works best and is absolutely required if you
> > are using read-only mounts for /usr/ports (NFS, nullfs, etc.)
> >
> > There is another option, if you don't want to change anything, create
> > local ports repo and add remote origin:
> >
> > #cd /usr/ports
> > #git init
> > #git remote add origin https://git.freebsd.org/ports.git
> > #git fetch
> > #git branch -f main origin/main
> > #git checkout main
> >
> > Cheers
> >
> Perhaps my previous reply was inappropriate or came across as impolite.
> Please forgive me, Graham, if I violated netiquette.
>
> I understand that the intent of the original mailing list thread was to
> address a problem that arose after the acceptance of another pull
> request [1], submitted by a SUSE Linux engineer who has been
> contributing frequently and should certainly be considered a FreeBSD
> contributor as well.
>

Yes. His changes are often high quality.


> That said, it might be worth considering whether this particular change
> could be reverted and the issue resolved in a different, more
> FreeBSD-specific way.
>
> [1]: https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd-src/pull/1873


I thought it was a good idea. I hadn't stopped to consider the git clone
issue.
I have it staged to back out.

Warner