Date: Sun, 3 Oct 2010 17:38:14 -0600 From: John Hein <jhein@symmetricom.com> To: Doug Barton <dougb@FreeBSD.org> Cc: "Philip M. Gollucci" <pgollucci@freebsd.org>, freebsd-ports@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: ident strings in pkg-plist Message-ID: <19625.5094.895017.729445@gossamer.timing.com> In-Reply-To: <4CA90A78.5010806@FreeBSD.org> References: <AANLkTi=9ZfAhdkAZ5dhXebM=4dpnnmC83Awg9O6EeED9@mail.gmail.com> <19625.2146.758021.796409@gossamer.timing.com> <4CA90A78.5010806@FreeBSD.org>
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Doug Barton wrote at 15:58 -0700 on Oct 3, 2010: > Changing the list to have a real discussion about this. > > On 10/3/2010 3:49 PM, John Hein wrote: > > I'll mention that > > it has come in handy for me in the past. I put it into the category > > of ident strings in binaries. It has a similar utility. > > > > Because I find it useful in maintaining and using a port/package, > > I've been one that has added it to pkg-plist in the past. > > I'm curious about what your use case for the information is. You can > always know if you have the latest version of the plist via cvs, > c[v]sup, portsnap, etc. Other than knowing that you have the latest > version, what utility does the $Id string in the file itself have? Mostly convenience (one less level of indirection). For identifying sub-changes between PORTVERSION/PORTREVISION bumps. For keeping track of heritage when using a local mirror of FreeBSD ports, but slightly divergent, for local products. Mainstream FreeBSD users don't care about this one, but people who use FreeBSD and add value might. For instance, PC-BSD might fall into this category (not trying to put words in their mouth - just guessing). $work users might. Just one specific use case here - we have to maintain some older 4.x based products and have to have our own branch of the ports tree. For aberrant maintenance issues where I have had local screwups. These, of course, are _extremely_ rare personally ;) Anyway this is quite a weak entry on the use case list. Just like for ident strings in binaries where you can generally get close enough by knowing uname, you can (as you mention) generally get close enough to the plist source version from PORTVERSION/PORTREVISION and cvs, et. al. Removal doesn't bother me that much, but I found it useful on occasion over the years.
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