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Date:      Thu, 24 Jul 1997 19:55:21 -0500
From:      dkelly@HiWAAY.net
To:        "Richard Seaman, Jr." <lists@tar.com>
Cc:        "freebsd-questions@freebsd.org" <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG>
Subject:   Re: Apache and Ports Policies in General 
Message-ID:  <199707250055.TAA02599@nexgen.hiwaay.net>
In-Reply-To: Message from "Richard Seaman, Jr." <lists@tar.com>  of "Thu, 24 Jul 1997 12:10:09 CDT." <199707241710.MAA04110@ns.tar.com> 

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Richard Seaman, Jr, writes:
>
> >I think the souce is as easy as the port to compile. Just type ./Configure
> >; make ; make install. :)
> 
> I agree with both these statements.  In this case we should just do away
> with the "port" altogether ;)

No! A port/package is *very* useful, even if the software is trivial to compile. By registering the software with the pkg_* system its very easy to keep track of what is installed. But most importantly pkg_delete can undo the installation. 

And lets not forget the value of the information contained in the port directory itself, such as the master site for downloading the software, and a brief description of the software. I search /usr/ports for stuff before web surfing.

I'd like to see a port for netatalk but have been either too busy or too lazy to do it myself.

Occasionally I get the opportunity to install another FreeBSD system for myself or someone else. One of the first things I start with is "ls /var/db/pkg" on my own system. Then I march thru that list and install same on the new one. Admit that I almost always decide to delete some of the packages and add others, but its a start.

What I would like to see in pkg_* is some kind of version control. If one installs (for example) fetchmail-4.0.0 and already has fetchmail-3.9.8 installed, I'd like to see 3.9.8 deleted. As things stand, the new 4.0.0 overwrites files from 3.9.8 that have the same name. But 3.9.8 still exists in /var/db/pkg. Only solution I know of is to pkg_delete both (ignore the errors) and reinstall the new.

--
David Kelly N4HHE, dkelly@hiwaay.net
=====================================================================
The human mind ordinarily operates at only ten percent of its
capacity -- the rest is overhead for the operating system.





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