From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Feb 15 00:01:54 2015 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [8.8.178.115]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher AECDH-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 2F259921 for ; Sun, 15 Feb 2015 00:01:54 +0000 (UTC) Received: from na01-bn1-obe.outbound.protection.outlook.com (mail-bn1on0113.outbound.protection.outlook.com [157.56.110.113]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA384 (256/256 bits)) (Client CN "mail.protection.outlook.com", Issuer "MSIT Machine Auth CA 2" (verified OK)) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id E0D23921 for ; Sun, 15 Feb 2015 00:01:53 +0000 (UTC) Received: from [10.0.0.21] (73.5.142.244) by BN3PR0301MB0835.namprd03.prod.outlook.com (25.160.154.145) with Microsoft SMTP Server (TLS) id 15.1.81.19; Sun, 15 Feb 2015 00:01:48 +0000 Message-ID: <54DFE1E7.5090205@my.hennepintech.edu> Date: Sat, 14 Feb 2015 18:01:43 -0600 From: Andrew Berg User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.2; WOW64; rv:31.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/31.2.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Subject: Re: Ports/Packages and release engineering References: <54DF89BE.6010005@complete.org> <54DFA962.2010509@infracaninophile.co.uk> In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Originating-IP: [73.5.142.244] X-ClientProxiedBy: CY1PR0601CA0007.namprd06.prod.outlook.com (25.160.162.17) To BN3PR0301MB0835.namprd03.prod.outlook.com (25.160.154.145) Authentication-Results: freebsd.org; dkim=none (message not signed) header.d=none; X-Microsoft-Antispam: UriScan:; X-Microsoft-Antispam: BCL:0;PCL:0;RULEID:;SRVR:BN3PR0301MB0835; X-Exchange-Antispam-Report-Test: UriScan:; X-Exchange-Antispam-Report-CFA-Test: BCL:0; PCL:0; RULEID:(601004); SRVR:BN3PR0301MB0835; X-Forefront-PRVS: 0488C54DB4 X-Forefront-Antispam-Report: SFV:NSPM; SFS:(10019020)(6009001)(6049001)(24454002)(110136001)(50466002)(65816999)(83506001)(80316001)(46102003)(107886001)(2351001)(65806001)(89122001)(42186005)(23676002)(64126003)(92566002)(54356999)(65956001)(66066001)(76176999)(87976001)(33656002)(88552001)(86362001)(59896002)(122386002)(77096005)(40100003)(450100001)(47776003)(87266999)(77156002)(2950100001)(50986999)(62966003)(75432002)(89472002); DIR:OUT; SFP:1102; SCL:1; SRVR:BN3PR0301MB0835; H:[10.0.0.21]; FPR:; SPF:None; MLV:nov; PTR:InfoNoRecords; LANG:en; X-Exchange-Antispam-Report-CFA-Test: BCL:0; PCL:0; RULEID:; SRVR:BN3PR0301MB0835; X-OriginatorOrg: my.hennepintech.edu X-MS-Exchange-CrossTenant-OriginalArrivalTime: 15 Feb 2015 00:01:48.7584 (UTC) X-MS-Exchange-CrossTenant-FromEntityHeader: Hosted X-MS-Exchange-Transport-CrossTenantHeadersStamped: BN3PR0301MB0835 X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.18-1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 15 Feb 2015 00:01:54 -0000 On 2015.02.14 17:20, John Goerzen wrote: > I actually expect to use pkg(8) rather than ports almost all of the time. > So it sounds nice that pkg(8) can do this, but I am confused about the > relation between ports and pkg. I see some rather contradictory information > out there, and wonder if this changed in FreeBSD 9 or 10? I see some people > saying that a person always needs to tell the ports system to register with > pkg, but then I don't see anything in the Handbook saying to do that these days. Ports tools create binary packages, and pkg manages them. This is a source of confusion for many, since historically, official binary packages were not updated regularly, and so trying to mix packages made from a new ports tree and official binary packages that could be months old was a source of pain, and therefore people would think of them as separate things. There is still some pain when something major in the ports tree has changed in the last week, but it is much less since a lot less will change in the course a week vs. collectively over many months. If you have many machines that you want to keep updated, I recommend either using the official binary package repo or creating and maintaining your own with Poudriere and using that. > Ah. OK. So is there really that much churn in base system libraries? It's > not necessarily an issue for me, but just a surprise; I'm used to systems > where most binaries that are a decade old still work fine on modern systems. There is compatibility stuff in the kernel and the misc/compat ports that contain libraries for old binaries. You can also install a full userland of an older release in a jail. Ancient versions can be painful, but possible (a 4.x jail on a 10.x host has been done!), while newer versions are mostly trivial.