On 20150513 the default Perl version changed from 5.18 to 5.20. There is no security reason to upgrade to 5.20, so many people, including myself have not done it. There is a current security vulnerability with php5, and when I try to use pkg upgrade to install it, it says this... # pkg upgrade php5 Updating FreeBSD repository catalogue... FreeBSD repository is up-to-date. All repositories are up-to-date. The following 2 package(s) will be affected (of 0 checked): New packages to be INSTALLED: perl5.18: 5.18.4_14 Installed packages to be UPGRADED: php5: 5.4.40 -> 5.4.41 The problem is that Perl v5.18 is already installed, and pkg is going to try and install it again as a side-by-side port. It doesn't even offer to upgrade Perl 5.18 to 5.20. This is definitely wrong.
1) We do not support partial upgrades when using binary packages (pkg upgrade <some package>) always run "pkg upgrade" without any argument. So it may be normal that pkg tries to make a mess. 2) You are using binary upgrades, so, I see no reason to not upgrade Perl, it's not going to take a long time to do it all. (also, give the task to pkg@, it's their turf)
> I see no reason to not upgrade Perl I see at lease one reason to not upgrade perl to version 5.20.2: broken regexps for utf strings [perl #124109]
Maybe you get lucky with: pkg install -f php5
lang/perl5.18 will expire in 4 days, is this problem still relevant (perhaps the general use case?)