From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Oct 20 21:16:43 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9405710656C2 for ; Tue, 20 Oct 2009 21:16:43 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from roberthuff@rcn.com) Received: from smtp02.lnh.mail.rcn.net (smtp02.lnh.mail.rcn.net [207.172.157.102]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 538DE8FC1A for ; Tue, 20 Oct 2009 21:16:43 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mr08.lnh.mail.rcn.net ([207.172.157.28]) by smtp02.lnh.mail.rcn.net with ESMTP; 20 Oct 2009 17:16:42 -0400 Received: from smtp01.lnh.mail.rcn.net (smtp01.lnh.mail.rcn.net [207.172.4.11]) by mr08.lnh.mail.rcn.net (MOS 3.10.7-GA) with ESMTP id LEU99489; Tue, 20 Oct 2009 17:16:42 -0400 (EDT) Received: from 209-6-22-227.c3-0.smr-ubr1.sbo-smr.ma.cable.rcn.com (HELO jerusalem.litteratus.org.litteratus.org) ([209.6.22.227]) by smtp01.lnh.mail.rcn.net with ESMTP; 20 Oct 2009 17:16:37 -0400 From: Robert Huff MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-ID: <19166.10420.838315.357127@jerusalem.litteratus.org> Date: Tue, 20 Oct 2009 17:16:36 -0400 To: Roland Smith In-Reply-To: <20091020205707.GA59474@slackbox.xs4all.nl> References: <4ADE1F2A.6020601@enabled.com> <20091020205707.GA59474@slackbox.xs4all.nl> X-Mailer: VM 7.17 under 21.5 (beta28) "fuki" XEmacs Lucid X-Junkmail-Whitelist: YES (by domain whitelist at mr08.lnh.mail.rcn.net) Cc: Noah , User Questions Subject: Re: how to build from ports without downloading ports X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 20 Oct 2009 21:16:43 -0000 Roland Smith writes: > But why go to all this trouble? Disk space is cheap these days, > why not add an extra disk? If you don't have space in the > chassis, consider using an external USB disk for /usr/ports. Sometimes ... because the machine hardware is not under your control. In the mid 90's, I worked on a major workstation upgrade for the customer support division of a large financial services firm: we were replacing 386/20s with Pentium 90s. Most of the old machines were still serviceable - even the ones that were half-filled with dust still ran - so we looked around for something to do with them other than the scrap heap. Off in a cranny in one of the machine rooms was a 286/, whose job it was to dial out twice a day, retrieve a specific piece of data, and put it in an equally specific place on the file server. It had been running 24/7 for, well, since you could hook a 286 up to a network file server.. Surely, we thought, we could move things over and increase reliability, etc.. The word came down from two or threee levels up the food chain: "Absolutely not. Don't even shut it down to dust." Robert Huff