Date: Thu, 12 Dec 1996 02:45:14 +0000 From: dicen@hooked.net To: torstenb@freebsd.org Cc: John Fieber <jfieber@indiana.edu>, asami@freebsd.org, ports@freebsd.org, www@freebsd.org Subject: Re: ports/2190: need cross-reference to xpdf from X11 ports tree Message-ID: <32AF71BA.794BDF32@hooked.net> References: <m0vY81q-000IDwC@solar.tlk.com>
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Torsten Blum wrote:
>
> John Fieber wrote:
>
> > Back in the good old days when the ports collection was small,
> > finding things in a primative organizational scheme was easy.
> > Now that the collection is growing by leaps and bounds, the
> > interface to the collection itself becomes more critical.
>
> agreed
>
> > Activities range from simply finding new ports, to knowing what
> > versions of what ports you have installed, being alerted when
> > those particular ones have been updated (including update
> > summaries), semi-automated retrieval and installation ("Click
> > here to install") and the like.
>
> I think we really need a notification service for the ports area,
> but...
>
> > I'm no cvs wizard, but it should be possible to plant a hook in
> > cvs to manage the updates in real-time as commits are made. A
> > script would only need to know the name of the single affected
> > port and it could then collect whatever information is needed for
> > a rich, rapid access secondary database. This strikes me as
> > being phenomenally more efficient than re-scanning the entire cvs
Well, I think sup.freebsd.org would always have to scan all the ports
unless you downloaded the entire /usr/ports tree. You can't have the
master site or server go out to the clients, you must have the clients
go to the server. This however does not represent a problem.
> > port collection and rebuilding the INDEX file from scratch every
> > time.
I totally agree here. The ports management system (or lack there of)
needs major improvement. The package system isn't much better.
>
> These notification messages should be limited to changes affecting the
> installation. No Notification should ne send if the vars in the
> port Makefile are reorg. or the master site has changed (just examples).
> For most people this is just "noise" - they don't care about it...
>
Not for me it isn't. When new FreeBSD releases are installed a lot of
ports and packages ussually break. A library gets renamed the /proc file
system is changeg, etc.. This is really anoying.
> This makes the real-time update of a "ports database" during cvs commits
> more difficult.
>
> -tb
Nah, Rubbish. cvs commits would update the ports database yes at the
master site. It would not update everyones ports databases since they
would have to go update there own systems from the database at the
master site.
What needs to be done is simple. Instead of having all of these ports in
/usr/ports with only some of them installed. A database needs to be made
that contains only those ports that have been compiled and then
installed as a package. Then just run sup ports-cvs to update all of the
ports in /usr/ports. If on the local system if one or more of these
ports happens to change when the /usr/ports are updated then run a
script which reinstalls the port. Not hard.
Another thing: Why not use the Red Hat Port Managment system. Haveing
SRPMS packages would be the way to go here. It has already been done so
you don't have to code it and it is sort of the Free OS industry
standard now.
dicen
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