From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Sep 16 22:33:02 2014 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) (using TLSv1 with cipher ADH-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 2B61AA44 for ; Tue, 16 Sep 2014 22:33:02 +0000 (UTC) Received: from fly.hiwaay.net (fly.hiwaay.net [216.180.54.1]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (Client did not present a certificate) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id E8D747CE for ; Tue, 16 Sep 2014 22:33:01 +0000 (UTC) Received: from kabini1.local (rbn1-216-180-76-123.adsl.hiwaay.net [216.180.76.123]) (authenticated bits=0) by fly.hiwaay.net (8.13.8/8.13.8/fly) with ESMTP id s8GMWxMe000777 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES128-SHA bits=128 verify=NO) for ; Tue, 16 Sep 2014 17:33:00 -0500 Message-ID: <5418BC12.7010108@hiwaay.net> Date: Tue, 16 Sep 2014 17:39:14 -0500 From: "William A. Mahaffey III" User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; FreeBSD amd64; rv:31.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/31.1.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 CC: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: A lot of pkg problems References: <2509308.9rytrV7MvD@penguin> <5411A89B.4010707@gmail.com> <1812950.bWcWxrzvJI@penguin> <54189CD1.7070102@webrz.net> <5418A5EE.1030304@hiwaay.net> In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.18-1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 16 Sep 2014 22:33:02 -0000 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.