From owner-freebsd-ports@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Feb 19 18:32:06 2011 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-ports@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id BC9D01065673 for ; Sat, 19 Feb 2011 18:32:06 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from kpetrikas@gmail.com) Received: from mail-vw0-f54.google.com (mail-vw0-f54.google.com [209.85.212.54]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7AA728FC12 for ; Sat, 19 Feb 2011 18:32:06 +0000 (UTC) Received: by vws9 with SMTP id 9so2669850vws.13 for ; Sat, 19 Feb 2011 10:32:05 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:mime-version:date:message-id:subject:from:to :content-type; bh=F8QiUDoVC127aQGtVLezTHgR8S/h4Dpz3zSM4QoeNMg=; b=Z7FzVbYOFoEalSZR9qBGFX/1xbfrThyKNr9Em1PJoQ8wB4qvZKgC7mMDRhqMl4BC8n 2JDXqarFay3CNmXZnJH4zRva0GR0IqQg3CC+4GqQnoLu+OxCRvZz7ozF7Y/y6CwLBDJH vkkz1OD5qQFtavTqiUGPWykypejYCZwHOEWXg= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:date:message-id:subject:from:to:content-type; b=rpliNTp1rwkvx94D/PMxkDtK+D2haB6hdZMDeTdzuomkV8aXuEMVOVpCeOIDvytKs/ 1WFqiWuHbwBqDcMxC/6HVcTYP/LgNXEt6D3mq6PCnD/pMQZy/26yeNhCpcF+/iyzu6gt qIHUnFE+hwg/q+CcX0fdkk5jkK6wM32JSVl0c= MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.52.168.4 with SMTP id zs4mr3492524vdb.265.1298138675233; Sat, 19 Feb 2011 10:04:35 -0800 (PST) Received: by 10.220.100.203 with HTTP; Sat, 19 Feb 2011 10:04:35 -0800 (PST) Date: Sat, 19 Feb 2011 18:04:35 +0000 Message-ID: From: Kostas Petrikas To: freebsd-ports@freebsd.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Subject: bxpkg - a new way to deal with binary upgrades. X-BeenThere: freebsd-ports@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Porting software to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 19 Feb 2011 18:32:06 -0000 Hello! In the past I had troubles with upgrading 3rd party software on desktop PCs as usually desktop environments have a quite big list of packages installed. Upgrading or even installing from ports could take a lot of time specially on slower laptops (can take days). While FreeBSD provides binary package repositories there really aren't any easy ways to use them for upgrades as there are no tools provided to handle them (pkg_add is not able to handle updates). To upgrade from binary packages one needs to get dependency list write it down, deinstall package and its dependencies, install dependencies and the package. It is frustrating and it corrupts required_by lists for the dependencies. There is also no easy way to know what versions are available in binary format. This dilemma inspired me to write "bxpkg" to handle binary upgrades and installation for desktop environments (since I use mostly GTK+ toolkit, its written using it). It solves all the problems in fast and good looking fashion. On a side note, the back-end is done in form of a library written from scratch that handles most package routines in robust but simple API. bxpkg is available from ports "ports-mgmt/bxpkg" or project's website "http://bxpkg.bsdroot.lv".