From owner-freebsd-ports@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Feb 6 07:59:48 2014 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-ports@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 0AF5E931 for ; Thu, 6 Feb 2014 07:59:48 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mail-qa0-x229.google.com (mail-qa0-x229.google.com [IPv6:2607:f8b0:400d:c00::229]) (using TLSv1 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-RC4-SHA (128/128 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id B73EA11E2 for ; Thu, 6 Feb 2014 07:59:47 +0000 (UTC) Received: by mail-qa0-f41.google.com with SMTP id w8so2258348qac.28 for ; Wed, 05 Feb 2014 23:59:47 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20120113; h=mime-version:in-reply-to:references:date:message-id:subject:from:to :cc:content-type; bh=2j36o+gY8GgATKhS759IMGdcj8J0B3q7KqdLT1KpBgE=; b=E3n40uaTJNeiPLW/RJJuOyNFMXo0QNUlacln2ScP/7Y/H3IHFGPyKjb2yT8WXUfJXg R0QH3KprB86qB9+7U8MJxkQVXCqMawoUMHtuBpkSCvHqvKfUxZJcAQwSdgPo79sle55G Nr+mBcHhIMrRc0n2ff/IXJxhSaaOD2qdH5PU86HyfFJbWpuB8OL7yVYGh8so/nzjFWjy GASCOPHQYm19lgzeVMiP4Y8yJ1OgwLho3GXwODp/2cXjJqdc1xqSeLXPLBufak4DHnYk tGZ1U+FtOs5nMLqUCebxaUhgoVU1j2JjSCXBXCFYjyUWGSapkIH/Brm1y48FxKvmA5As pWMA== MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Received: by 10.224.14.2 with SMTP id e2mr9884652qaa.73.1391673586942; Wed, 05 Feb 2014 23:59:46 -0800 (PST) Received: by 10.229.1.73 with HTTP; Wed, 5 Feb 2014 23:59:46 -0800 (PST) In-Reply-To: <52F32F7C.2030601@infracaninophile.co.uk> References: <201402052202.s15M2Lha059200@fire.js.berklix.net> <52F2C0C8.5010203@gmx.de> <52F32F7C.2030601@infracaninophile.co.uk> Date: Thu, 6 Feb 2014 08:59:46 +0100 Message-ID: Subject: Re: [FreeBSD-Ports-Announce] Time to bid farewell to the old pkg_ tools From: Big Lebowski To: Matthew Seaman Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.17 Cc: freebsd-ports X-BeenThere: freebsd-ports@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.17 Precedence: list List-Id: Porting software to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 06 Feb 2014 07:59:48 -0000 On Thu, Feb 6, 2014 at 7:45 AM, Matthew Seaman < m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk> wrote: > On 05/02/2014 23:57, Kevin Oberman wrote: > > 1. The ports/packages system is not total crap. In fact, at the time jkh > > started it, it was far superior to any tool available. > > When I first encountered the ports, way back in 1998 or so, I was > completely mind-blown that something so fantastic could exist. Yes, it > was revolutionary at the time and right where FreeBSD should be -- > leading the rest of the world with great innovations. > > However, things have changed in the last 16 years. Development of the > ports as a global concept has been resting on its laurels a bit, and the > rest of the world has caught up, and indeed overtaken. Partly that was > due to the mindset of seeing binary packages as a second-class thing; > partly due to the old pkg_tools not providing the scope to implement > innovative features; partly due to pkg_tools being part of the FreeBSD > base, so impossible to update over reasonable timescales due to the > requirement to support older RELEASE branches. > > pkg(8) addresses those problems, and I hope will do so for at least the > next decade. > > > 5. The introduction of pkgng could have really been handled better and > that > > probably increased the negative feelings about it. It was also a bit > before > > it was really ready. It still lacks a few features I feel are quite > > important, but they were also missing from the old system. > > I don't think it's possible to make a change of this magnitude without > upsetting anyone. We have been getting a lot of feedack on the lines of > 'Wow! This is great. When can we have feature XYZ?' to which we > frequently have to reply that XYZ can't be implemented without breaking > compatibility with pkg_tools. Like sub-packages. > > I'd be interested to hear what features you think are missing. We will > implement anything (eventually...) that there is demand for and that is > technically feasible, and that fits with the overall concept of what we > think a packaging system should do. There's a number of ideas in the > github issue list already (usually tagged with 'longterm' or 'thinking') > and we are happy for people to add to that, or to discuss ideas -- the > freebsd-pkg@ list is a good place for that. > The ability to install certain package version, instead of installing simply the latest one. Please, please, pretty please! :) B. > > Cheers, > > Matthew > > -- > Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil. > > PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey > JID: matthew@infracaninophile.co.uk > >