Date: Tue, 05 Mar 2002 14:00:37 -0800 From: "Kevin Oberman" <oberman@es.net> To: stan <stanb@awod.com> Cc: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Subject: Re: XFree86 4.2 Message-ID: <20020305220037.5F2675D06@ptavv.es.net> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Tue, 05 Mar 2002 16:25:26 EST." <20020305212526.GA21001@teddy.fas.com>
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> Date: Tue, 5 Mar 2002 16:25:26 -0500 > From: stan <stanb@awod.com> > Sender: owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG > > On Tue, Mar 05, 2002 at 09:31:47AM -0800, Kevin Oberman wrote: > > > From: Mike Murphree <w4lna@knology.net> > > > Date: Tue, 5 Mar 2002 06:32:34 -0600 > > > Sender: owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG > > > > > > On Tuesday 05 March 2002 04:03 am, Herve Quiroz wrote: > > > > I have not been member of this list until recently so I have probably > > > > missed some discussion on the topic. Anyway, what is going on with Xfree86 > > > > v4.2 ? I once had seen XFree86 4.2 on freshports.org but then it came back > > > > to 4.1 few days later... > > > > > > > > NetBSD has already 4.2 in -stable so why not FreeBSD ? > > > > > > > > > > The port was at 4.2.0 shortly before the release of FreeBSD 4.5 and > > > it was rolled back to 4.1.9 because of insufficient testing time before the > > > release. It has never been put back... > > > > > > I've been running 4.2.0 since that time with zero problems. > > > > This is not why the 4.2 port was pulled. The main reason was that > > XF86-4.2 was added to the ports just prior to the release of FreeBSD > > 4.5. It was felt that it was unwise to include a new release of > > XFree86 that was largely untested in a new release of FreeBSD, so the > > port was pulled. > > > > At the same time it was decided that it was a good time to convert > > XFree86 from a port to a meta-port. This has been under discussion for > > some time and the 4.2 release looked like a good time to cut over. So > > the 4.2 port appeared and disappeared from the tree, but is still > > available and works fine. > > > > (If you don't know what a meta-port is, look at /usr/ports/x11/gnome/Makefile.) > > So what are teh _advantegse_ of a metaport? > > O'm dealing with on _disdvantage_ at the moment. For reasons involving > my own stupidity, I find myself with a broken Gnome installlation even > though the ports db thinks it' fine. But since it's a metaport, I can't > just do "portupgrade -f gnome" :-( > > Must be a positive side to this, right? Otherwise you could just install > all of it with a trivial shell loop over the various appropriate > directories in the ports tree. Hmm. You have hit on the problem with meta-ports. I don't install the gnome meta-port for just that reason. But a meta-port is a good thing because it allows a bunch of ports that "go together" to be easily installed. In you case the only good solutions are to either delete all of the ports in the meta-port and then re-install it or to do a portupgrade -f on each of the dependent ports. At least it's easy to spot them in the Makefile for gnome. In the case of X (and not too different from Gnome) you have a very large port that can take a VERY long time to build and install. But normally there is no really reason to rebuild the whole thing. Better to just update the part that actually changed. So the trick is to set up a meta-port. This allows the easy installation of XF86-4 but it only required that you update the pieces that have changed and not the whole monster. If the server is patched, the installation of clients, libraries, and fonts is a total waste of time. When XF86-4.2 is available as a meta-port I will probably not install it. I will remove the existing XFree86 and look at the Makefile and simply do a portinstall on each of the dependencies in the port. R. Kevin Oberman, Network Engineer Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) Ernest O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) E-mail: oberman@es.net Phone: +1 510 486-8634 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-stable" in the body of the message
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