From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Apr 21 01:21:53 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7CC9916A4CE for ; Thu, 21 Apr 2005 01:21:53 +0000 (GMT) Received: from lariat.org (lariat.net [65.122.236.2]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E5DA943D48 for ; Thu, 21 Apr 2005 01:21:52 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from brett@lariat.org) Received: from anne-o1dpaayth1.lariat.org (IDENT:ppp1000.lariat.org@lariat.net [65.122.236.2]) by lariat.org (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id TAA24435; Wed, 20 Apr 2005 19:21:42 -0600 (MDT) X-message-flag: Warning! Use of Microsoft Outlook renders your system susceptible to Internet worms. Message-Id: <6.2.1.2.2.20050420191559.06cd0368@localhost> X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 6.2.1.2 Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2005 19:20:24 -0600 To: Kevin Kinsey From: Brett Glass In-Reply-To: <4266ECBB.6000703@daleco.biz> References: <20050419043330.GA92736@xor.obsecurity.org> <6.2.1.2.2.20050419203347.05bed918@localhost> <20050420120120.9D06.REES@ddcom.co.jp> <6.2.1.2.2.20050420170705.06dc6050@localhost> <4266ECBB.6000703@daleco.biz> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" cc: Joel cc: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Can't build ports on older FreeBSD machine X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 21 Apr 2005 01:21:53 -0000 At 05:58 PM 4/20/2005, Kevin Kinsey wrote: >Not in my experience. More oft than not, it's FreeBSD I "fix" and >that other OS I "flatten". > >But then, maybe we work in different environments, although >I'm betting my experience is more common than yours I consult with, and provide service to, quite a few sysadmins at small companies. Most of them won't bother to fix a FreeBSD system that's gone awry like that; they'll just reinstall. They do not have the time to investigate the subtleties of what went wrong. But again, I guess I believe (to bring things back on topic) that a standard, recommended procedure should never leave your machine, or a major subsystem thereof, unusable. It's not hard to fix this, though in this particular case it's not just a matter of setting code but setting a little policy. That's why, contrary to what one recent taunting message in this thread suggests, I can't just "go fix it." The fix has to be in the way things are done more than in the code. Ironically, in the FreeBSD world, this is the harder kind of change to make. --Brett