From owner-freebsd-questions Thu Jul 24 18:05:05 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) id SAA05989 for questions-outgoing; Thu, 24 Jul 1997 18:05:05 -0700 (PDT) Received: from fly.HiWAAY.net (root@fly.HiWAAY.net [208.147.154.56]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id SAA05955 for ; Thu, 24 Jul 1997 18:04:57 -0700 (PDT) Received: from nexgen.hiwaay.net by fly.HiWAAY.net; (8.8.6/1.1.8.2/21Sep95-1003PM) id UAA03098; Thu, 24 Jul 1997 20:04:45 -0500 (CDT) Received: from nexgen (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by nexgen.hiwaay.net (8.8.6/8.8.4) with ESMTP id TAA02599; Thu, 24 Jul 1997 19:55:21 -0500 (CDT) Message-Id: <199707250055.TAA02599@nexgen.hiwaay.net> X-Mailer: exmh version 2.0gamma 1/27/96 To: "Richard Seaman, Jr." cc: "freebsd-questions@freebsd.org" From: dkelly@HiWAAY.net Subject: Re: Apache and Ports Policies in General In-reply-to: Message from "Richard Seaman, Jr." of "Thu, 24 Jul 1997 12:10:09 CDT." <199707241710.MAA04110@ns.tar.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Date: Thu, 24 Jul 1997 19:55:21 -0500 Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk 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.