From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri May 23 07:18:30 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C40FB1065675 for ; Fri, 23 May 2008 07:18:30 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from developer@grinz.com) Received: from mail.boomhaus.com (emerson.grinz.com [64.219.233.251]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 585A88FC2D for ; Fri, 23 May 2008 07:18:30 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from developer@grinz.com) Received: from localhost (localhost.grinz.com [127.0.0.1]) by localhost.boomhaus.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6CD716A0 for ; Fri, 23 May 2008 02:15:41 -0500 (CDT) X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at emerson.grinz.com Received: from mail.boomhaus.com ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (emerson.grinz.com [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with LMTP id H5XvVhUh0dja for ; Fri, 23 May 2008 02:15:41 -0500 (CDT) Received: from grinzport.grinz.com (localhost.grinz.com [127.0.0.1]) by mail.boomhaus.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0013568D for ; Fri, 23 May 2008 02:15:40 -0500 (CDT) Received: from 74.170.92.99 (SquirrelMail authenticated user ross.emerson.grinz.com) by grinzport.grinz.com with HTTP; Fri, 23 May 2008 02:15:41 -0500 (CDT) Message-ID: <50650.74.170.92.99.1211526941.squirrel@grinzport.grinz.com> Date: Fri, 23 May 2008 02:15:41 -0500 (CDT) From: "Ross Gohlke" To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org User-Agent: SquirrelMail/1.4.8 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain;charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Priority: 3 (Normal) Importance: Normal References: <48345138.8080507@ibctech.ca> <4834599A.1090108@infracaninophile.co.uk> <4834A7B4.9030302@ibctech.ca> <20080521232319.GA57359@osiris.chen.org.nz> <4834B7EE.3000002@ibctech.ca> <20080522020619.GA69543@osiris.chen.org.nz> <4834D891.6050707@ibctech.ca> <20080522035913.GA78449@osiris.chen.org.nz> <483503AD.60801@infracaninophile.co.uk> <4835634F.6060107@ibctech.ca> <20080522203932.GA74897@osiris.chen.org.nz> <50810.74.170.92.99.1211493506.squirrel@grinzport.grinz.com> In-Reply-To: <50810.74.170.92.99.1211493506.squirrel@grinzport.grinz.com> Subject: Perspective on ports for non-experts X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: developer@grinz.com List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 23 May 2008 07:18:30 -0000 I am a jack-of-all-trades, master of none sysadmin. There's a lot to love about FreeBSD, but ports take the cake. The procedures below work 99% of the time for virtually any software I need to run. I have never had a problem I couldn't quickly fix. I actually had to use portdowngrade once, and it worked! My normal ports routine is: % cd /usr/ports/ % portsnap fetch update % portsdb -u % portaudit -Fa % pico UPDATING % portversion -l '<' [OR] portversion -v |less % portupgrade -vr postfix % portupgrade -vr clamav .... If I'm installing a new port: % cd /usr/ports % make search name=postfix % cd mail/postfix % make install clean In my experience, if the instructions in the Handbook don't work, finding the workaround often involves hunting and pecking across the Internet, as well as learning new concepts and commands. I've never seen something like "An Introduction to make". I only recently learned how to retrieve the graphical configuration screen after an installation without deinstalling/reinstalling: % make configure Some of you will laugh, but some will know exactly what I'm talking about. Where should I have learned that? Please don't send me to man! The one thing I'm looking for in man pages is examples. I hardly ever find them. ## ## How to replace wrong binary packages with source packages I'm ready to run X11/KDE. It seems like the perfect time to learn how to use ports for binary packages, since X11/KDE are non-essential and will take a couple of days to compile and install. ## http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/packages-using.html % pkg_add -r kde3 Error: FTP Unable to get ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-6.1-release/Latest/kde3.tbz: File unavailable (e.g., file not found, no access) pkg_add: unable to fetch 'ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-6.1-release/Latest/kde3.tbz' by URL So I used: % pkg_add -r ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages/Latest/kd3.tbz I think I should have used /packages-6-stable/. Instead I ended up with binaries for 7 (I guess). I don't understand the first thing about linking/dynamic compiling. All I know is I couldn't upgrade any of these packages using portupgrade. Here's an example: % portupgrade -vr qt ... /usr/bin/ld: warning: libz.so.4, needed by /usr/local/lib/libqt-mt.so, not found (try using -rpath or -rpath-link) I don't have a list of every binary package installed, but through a process of elimination I eventually weed out all the bad binaries: % pkg_deinstall -v qt This is better than make deinstall because it quits if there is a dependency rather than just reporting it. Run the same command for each package depending on qt, then run it on qt again. Keep running this command until it succeeds: % cd /usr/ports/x11/kde3 % make configure Use the warning messages to figure out which ports need to be removed. Is there a better way to rectify this situation? Ross Gohlke