pkg/59891: Lost XFCE and many primary packages with pkg upgrade when packages were "refreshed"

[netbsd.open.source%softhome.ca@localhost]

>Number:         59891
>Category:       pkg
>Synopsis:       Lost XFCE and many primary packages with pkg upgrade when packages were "refreshed"
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       critical
>Priority:       high
>Responsible:    pkg-manager
>State:          open
>Class:          sw-bug
>Submitter-Id:   net
>Arrival-Date:   Mon Jan 05 12:40:00 +0000 2026
>Originator:     John L. Males
>Release:        10.1 20260105
>Organization:
User
>Environment:
NetBSD DN001.local 10.1 NetBSD 10.1 (GENERIC) #0: Mon Dec 16 13:08:11 UTC 2024  mkrepro%mkrepro.NetBSD.org@localhost:/usr/src/sys/arch/amd64/compile/GENERIC amd64
>Description:
Did:

pkgin update
pkgin upgrade

many packages failed refresh directly and indirectly due to:

pkg_add: no pkg found for 'mpdecimal>=4.0.0', sorry.

the result was many key packages deleted including xfce4 as package deleted first before package refresh.

Second time have had xfce4 removed from system since initial NetBSD install that was first time performed pkgin upgrade after initial NetBSD install. In fact first time performed pkgin upgrade xfce4 packages and all GUI applications lost and had to manually install basically all packages again installed after initial NetBSD install 20250714.  At time I did not know how to report such issues, hence this incident went unreported.  It is likely this first occurrence will be in "pkg_install-err-20260105-0936+0000.log.tar.gz"
>How-To-Repeat:
I believe those testing with pkgin have for example mpdecimal already on NetBSD system and if so will not have:

pkg_add: no pkg found for 'mpdecimal>=4.0.0', sorry.

What needs to be done is install NetBSD from install image as of 20250714 and pkgin as of 20250714 with at least xfce4, and ideally packages I had per "20260105-101633+0000-UTC-netbsd-10.1-de-pkg-update.script.tar.gz" prior to update.
>Fix:
My fear is for second time I have lost most installed packages with pkgin is yet again I will have to take hours to go through error log to build a pkgin install of these many lost packages.  This is only fourth time I have performed pkgin update since installed NetBSD 20250714.  A 50% occurrence of pkgin deleting most packages installed on system is not acceptable.  I hazard I would not be only user impacted, but have sense NetBSD developers are not encountering such clearly critical issues because testing is additive and not based on baseline references.  Baseline references are very important.  When to choose baseline references is important and I cannot provide guidance other than one baseline reference is pkgin and all packages as of when each base install image is created.  Can this be automated; yes for sure not just testing, but selecting install images/kernel updates/pkgin/binary/pkg source. et al can be automated.  I know as had to implement not just for single OS but acros
 s multiple OS for multiple software packages.