Date: Tue, 16 Sep 2014 17:39:14 -0500 From: "William A. Mahaffey III" <wam@hiwaay.net> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: A lot of pkg problems Message-ID: <5418BC12.7010108@hiwaay.net> In-Reply-To: <alpine.BSF.2.11.1409161505350.93245@wonkity.com> References: <B2E0472020754D45B72E9B0CE35278CAB720593587@EXCHANGE.mail.starnet.cz> <2509308.9rytrV7MvD@penguin> <5411A89B.4010707@gmail.com> <1812950.bWcWxrzvJI@penguin> <54189CD1.7070102@webrz.net> <5418A5EE.1030304@hiwaay.net> <alpine.BSF.2.11.1409161505350.93245@wonkity.com>
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On 09/16/14 16:16, Warren Block wrote:
> On Tue, 16 Sep 2014, William A. Mahaffey III wrote:
>
>> I have posted a fair amount of questions/issues w/ pkg as well. I
>> think most of the problems are with documentation. The interactions
>> between ports & pkgs as managed by pkg are not necessarily intuitive,
>> & *ALL* documentation (man pages, 'pkg help ....', & online docs) are
>> mum on that matter. There are some files/metadata/etc. that
>> apparently are used by both packages (ports & pkg), & it is
>> maddeningly easy to run afoul of those interactions, at least for me.
>> I have boiled it down to 'always do whatever you are going to do w/
>> pkg *1st*, then mess w/ ports' .... That is working for me, but my
>> setup is pretty simplistic .... YMMV, IANAL, & all that rot ....
>
> There is a simple misunderstanding here. A package is just the binary
> version of a port. When a port is compiled and installed, it is
> really creating a package and installing that.
>
> pkg is a tracking system. The packages can be built from ports or
> downloaded as pre-built packages. Mixing both is not generally
> recommended.
>
> The amount of time people are willing to invest in "saving time" with
> packages is interesting. In many cases, they could have built from
> ports and been done quicker overall, or at least with less user
> involvement.
>
I try fervently not to mix them, but often the online (freebsd.org) docs
recommend doing something through ports which could be done w/ pkg
instead. I have slavishly followed some of those recommendations & had a
5+ hour compile session ensue (I'm on a somewhat meager machine, 1.3 GHz
AMD quad-core jaguar based), when I (think I) could have installed the
pkg (which was available) in a couple of mins. But that isn't the big
issue for me, it has been the fact that doing some portmaster or ports
commands then preclude pkg from upgrading packages. I like the system
overall, mind you, but as a noob, getting spun up on the intricacies of
ports/pkg has been a bit of a challenge. I try to use pkg exclusively
(I'm with Radel on that point), but I need/want flash browser support
(I'm still awaiting the flash port to get working on 9.3), so some ports
is unavoidable for me .... Probably more noise than necessary, since I
am overall happy w/ FBSD ....
--
William A. Mahaffey III
----------------------------------------------------------------------
"The M1 Garand is without doubt the finest implement of war
ever devised by man."
-- Gen. George S. Patton Jr.
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