Date: Sat, 13 Mar 1999 16:43:37 -0800 (PST) From: John Polstra <jdp@polstra.com> To: Roelof Osinga <roelof@eboa.com> Cc: questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: CVSup: a newbie's tale. Message-ID: <XFMail.990313164337.jdp@polstra.com> In-Reply-To: <36E94884.978847CB@eboa.com>
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Roelof Osinga wrote: > John Polstra wrote: >> >> I'm sorry, but I disagree with that proposal. In Unix it has always >> been understood that "the name" of a file means "whatever it takes to >> reference it from your current working directory." (For that matter, >> the same assumption holds even under DOS or Windows.) That's assumed >> in all of the manual pages -- see cat(1) or ls(1), for example. > > I love it when they fight back ;). Granted in so far we're talking > about just any ol' file. But we're not. At this stage (in the manual > as well as the process) we are configuring. No, the instructions you complained about are in the "Running CVSup" section of the tutorial -- not the "Configuration" section. > As such we're dealing with configuration files. You know... the > things Unix traditionally stores in /etc <g>. The archetypical > /etc/rc springs to mind. Heck, even DOS and its GUI Windows expect > their configutation files to be at well-known locations like the > root of the C disk or in the Windows installation directory. In > that it is indeed just like Unix, for does not even X look for its > configuration files in well-known locations? > > So in a way the very term configuration implies well-known > locations. Not when the files are specified on the command line. I can't think of a single Unix utility that works that way. > If Samba does it like this, why shouldn't CVSup? With Samba, you don't name the "configuration" files on the command line. >> It really really will, if it was built and installed right. If >> you're having problems with it, I'd recommend that you install >> the "cvsup-bin" port from the "net" category. That's the least >> trouble-prone one. > > Famous last words <g>. I'm not having problems with it. But, suppose > you're right and somehow it wasn't built or installed right. Then > clearly I'm having problems with at least the documentation <g>. > > For I can't see how I could fail to do 'make install' right. Also I > do remember noticing: "To build this port without X11 (and without > the GUI), define NO_X11". But no dialog. I just listed the env. vars > in bash and it does not have NO_X11 defined. I really can't help with this unless you can give me a recipe for duplicating the problem. If you can make it happen again on your system and will send me a transcript (man 1 script) of the entire build process, then I'd be happy to look at it. > It's not the details of the port collection one wants to know, > merely what CVSup is about to do. I could care less about the > details of some port, but I would like to know whether or not it > gets fetched. And if I get to have a say in it. And if so what say > and how to say it. You might know what it does, but the one that > reads the manual does not. Which is of course why such a one reads > the manual in the first place :). You worry too much. :-) Heck, just run it! If you don't like what it's doing, then kill it. Unless you assume the program is outright hostile, it's not going to do much damage in the second or so it takes you to hit ^C. >> I should make more clear in the tutorial. I think you should use >> FreeBSD for awhile and become more familiar with it before you >> start trying make worlds in particular. You'll feel a lot less >> nervous about it once you are more comfortable with the system. > > Wouldn't do you any good. I needed to get CVSup up and running > because one port was updated since RELEASE-3.1. You can get individual ports easily from the FreeBSD web pages. Go to www.freebsd.org, click on "Ported applications", and take it from there. > Besides, I've been using Unix since '86 and can still come up with > these questions. So how many years prior Unix experience were you > thinking about? ;) Since '85 at the latest. ;-) John --- John Polstra jdp@polstra.com John D. Polstra & Co., Inc. Seattle, Washington USA "Self-interest is the aphrodisiac of belief." -- James V. DeLong To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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