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Date:      17 May 1996 05:13:10 -0500
From:      "Richard Wackerbarth" <rkw@dataplex.net>
To:        "hackers@FreeBSD.org" <hackers@FreeBSD.org>, "Michael Smith" <msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au>
Subject:   Re(2): Standard Shipping Containers - A Proposal for Distributing FreeBSD
Message-ID:  <n1379812485.49184@Richard Wackerbarth>

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> All this discussion is telling us is that there are several different ways
> by which FreeBSD source code is distributed, and each of these 
> different ways works well for different people.

Agreed.

> What's wrong with things as they are?  Why should anyone feel compelled to
change things if they're not broken?

They are broken! And I don't want to have to keep repeating the
generation of patches to fix them.

It is analogous to having a port of something (say gcc) and no way
to get your modifications folded back into the author's release.
Every time he comes out with a new release, someone has to generate
a new set of patches.

Here is what's broken:

1) For the new sup user to get started, sup has to download 
the entire source tree, even though the user already has most 
of it from the tarball or the CD.

2) For the ctm user.the same is true of the tarball. Things 
are better from the 2.1.0 CD. However, our staff (I get stuck 
with it) will have to generate a separate starter file for use 
with the 2.1.1 CD.

3) The ctm user has to maintain a complete history set of ctm
updates in order to restore a damaged tree. He cannot use sup 
for this purpose.

4) The whole process of setting up a new user is too confusing
even if they RTFM. It would become much easier to describe the
process if we eliminate the exceptions.

--

...computers in the future may have only 1,000 vacuum tubes and weigh
only 1/2 tons.      --  Popular Mechanics, March 1949




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