Re: Upgraded from 13.x release to 14.4 and now I can't use the ports tree?

You ran the commands under '/usr/ports' instead of
'/usr/ports/ports-mgmt/portmaster'. You need to `cd` to the port name's
folder then run the commands. In your case:

# cd /usr/ports/ports-mgmt/portmaster
# make check-plist && make stage-qa

On Tue, May 26, 2026, 14:31 Edward Sanford Sutton, III <
[email protected]> wrote:

> On 5/25/26 22:43, Kaya Saman wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> >
> > I've just gone through the upgrade procedure described here:
> >
> >
> > https://docs.freebsd.org/en/books/handbook/cutting-edge/
> >
> >
> > and updated to 14.4 from 13.5 (I think was the latest release version?),
> > uname output: 14.4-RELEASE-p3 FreeBSD 14.4-RELEASE-p3 GENERIC amd64
> >
> >
> > When I try to build ports now, this is what I keep getting:
> >
> >
> > ===>>> Creating a backup package for old version portmaster-3.35
> > Creating package for portmaster-3.35
> > pkg-static: file '/usr/local/share/licenses/portmaster-3.35/BSD2CLAUSE'
> > is missing
> > pkg-static: package creation failed
> >
> > ===>>> Package creation failed for portmaster-3.35!
> >
> > ===>>> Ignore this error  [i]
> > ===>>> Abort update       [a]
> > ===>>> Retry              [r]
> >
> > ===>>> How would you like to proceed? [i]
> >
> > No packages matched for pattern 'portmaster-3.35'
> >
> > Checking integrity... done (0 conflicting)
> > 1 packages requested for removal: 0 locked, 1 missing
> >
> > ===>  Installing for portmaster-3.35
> > ===>  Checking if portmaster is already installed
> > ===>   portmaster-3.35 is already installed
> >        You may wish to ``make deinstall'' and install this port again
> >        by ``make reinstall'' to upgrade it properly.
> >        If you really wish to overwrite the old port of portmaster
> >        without deleting it first, set the variable "FORCE_PKG_REGISTER"
> >        in your environment or the "make install" command line.
> > *** Error code 1
> >
> > Stop.
> > make[1]: stopped making "/usr/ports/ports-mgmt/portmaster/
> > work/.install_done.portmaster._usr_local" in /usr/ports/ports-mgmt/
> > portmaster
> > *** Error code 1
> >
> > Stop.
> > make: stopped making "install" in /usr/ports/ports-mgmt/portmaster
> >
> > ===>>> A backup package for portmaster-3.35 should
> >         be located in /usr/ports/packages/portmaster-backup
> >
> > ===>>> Installation of portmaster-3.35 (ports-mgmt/portmaster) failed
> > ===>>> Aborting update
> >
> >
> > ===>>> You can restart from the point of failure with this command line:
> >         portmaster <flags> ports-mgmt/portmaster
> >
> > This command has been saved to ~/portmasterfail.txt
> >
> >
> >
> > For some reason I'm unable to use either portmaster or even the standard
> > 'make' command under any of the ports eg:
> >
> >
> > :/usr/ports/ports-mgmt/portmaster # make deinstall; make install clean
> > ===>  Deinstalling for portmaster
> > ===>   Deinstalling portmaster-3.35
> > Checking integrity... done (0 conflicting)
> > Deinstallation has been requested for the following 1 packages (of 0
> > packages in the universe):
> >
> > Installed packages to be REMOVED:
> >      portmaster: 3.33
> >
> > Number of packages to be removed: 1
> > [1/1] Deinstalling portmaster-3.33...
> > [1/1] Deleting files for portmaster-3.33: 100%
> > ===>  Installing for portmaster-3.35
> > ===>  Checking if portmaster is already installed
> > ===>   portmaster-3.35 is already installed
> >        You may wish to ``make deinstall'' and install this port again
> >        by ``make reinstall'' to upgrade it properly.
> >        If you really wish to overwrite the old port of portmaster
> >        without deleting it first, set the variable "FORCE_PKG_REGISTER"
> >        in your environment or the "make install" command line.
> > *** Error code 1
> >
> > Stop.
> > make[1]: stopped making "/usr/ports/ports-mgmt/portmaster/
> > work/.install_done.portmaster._usr_local" in /usr/ports/ports-mgmt/
> > portmaster
> > *** Error code 1
> >
> > Stop.
> > make: stopped making "install clean" in /usr/ports/ports-mgmt/portmaster
> >
> >
> > There's a mismatch somewhere but what's going on?
>
>    The ports tree, and therefore portmaster, perform installs and
> uninstalls by running pkg. Running `pkg query %v portmaster` should
> display what is says is currently the installed version number. If it is
> installed according to pkg, then `pkg delete portmaster` should be the
> correct action to remove it. `pkg info` outputs all installed packages
> with version on the package name and comment beside it if you want to
> manually review your full list.
>    I'm not sure what would have brought it to a state of always removing
> pkg 3.33 when the ports tree and/or portmaster says it is uninstalling
> 3.35 before that. I'd guess just an output bug where they assume its the
> same version but that is misleading if that is happening and deserves a
> bug report; better to display no version number on a stage's output if
> the output is going to not match the command.
>
> > Do I need to update the ports tree? It seems there is no more "portsnap"
> > command so should I clean out /usr/ports completely then use the git
> > version described here:
>
>    You should decide if there is anything in there that you want backed
> up first: distfiles will only be used by a port calling for them and
> generally require size and checksum match to be used so should be safe
> to keep and will save download time/bandwidth. Work directories of many
> ports get a versioned folder inside of it but the ports tree
> instructions don't check that what already exists is correct; in any
> case I'd let them all go if builds are giving you trouble (just as 'make
> clean' would have done in a port's folder).
>
> > https://docs.freebsd.org/en/books/handbook/ports/
> >
> >
> > I guess this would be needed: # git clone --depth 1 https://
> > git.FreeBSD.org/ports.git /usr/ports ?
>
>    I don't use '--depth 1' when I use git but seeing that discussed
> seems vaguely familiar. As I do want git history to be accurate and
> complete and I do make changes to the ports tree and with the intention
> of submitting patches I create it without that part. I migrated when use
> of git was still fairly new and I didn't reread that whole document but
> I recall I had /usr/ports as its own ZFS dataset and git gave me grief
> in trying to clone to that location, probably caused by the existence of
> /usr/ports/.zfs but I forget). I think there is another flag that
> suppresses such complaint but I think I cloned it to another location
> that was a normal directory and moved its contents including hidden
> content to /usr/ports. Git maintains its own data (only?) in
> /usr/ports/.git so that must be transferred too if moving the clone.
>
> > Regards,
> >
> >
> > Kaya
>
>