Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Thu, 18 Oct 2018 20:52:33 -0400 (EDT)
From:      doug <doug@fledge.watson.org>
To:        freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: freebsd packages going the debian way!
Message-ID:  <alpine.BSF.2.20.1810182028060.56592@fledge.watson.org>
In-Reply-To: <1a76bc80-9fb6-4731-66e0-1e07c38e8fc0@mgm51.com>
References:  <CAPu-kW-jOpCL93G6YubPaJZQOkTYa5UzrYabdg-WbcbQje8obQ@mail.gmail.com> <049b9e13-688c-39ba-9d77-50e630dc9b6f@kicp.uchicago.edu> <1845546f-470c-4a5f-7118-24cab613e4e0@mgm51.com> <20181015160900.767a01052e9642d87f6a3ba0@sohara.org> <1a76bc80-9fb6-4731-66e0-1e07c38e8fc0@mgm51.com>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help


On Mon, 15 Oct 2018, Mike via freebsd-questions wrote:

> On 10/15/2018 11:09 AM, Steve O'Hara-Smith wrote:
>> On Mon, 15 Oct 2018 10:58:53 -0400
>> Mike via freebsd-questions <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> wrote:
>>
>>> What is the reason for not using ports and pkg on the same machine?
>>
>> 	There are a number of difficulties:
>>
>> 1: Making sure that your ports tree is in sync with the one used for
>>    package building.
>> 2: Preventing pkg from replacing your ports during pkg upgrade (careful use
>>    of pkg lock is required)
>> 3: Dependencies built with different options may not always work.
>>
>> 	I've found it fairly easy to handle a few leaf packages as ports
>> more than that is likely to get fiddly.
>>
>
> Thanks for the follow-up.
>
> I had been using ports and pkg on the same machine without issues, so I
> was wondering what the reason was for the warning.
>
On servers, I can maybe see one or the other. On a workstation I think there is 
no practical option but to use packages for the base stuff: Xorg, desktop (xfce 
for me) firefox, and most of the xfce goodies. This is especially true if you 
are like me and can't/won't buy a workstation with a comma in the cost. I did 
this pre-pkg. pkg has helped immensely with (if not largely solved) the 
dependency problems. If you want firefox, chrome, gimp, libreoffice and the like 
on your workstation, it is going to be a challenge no matter how you build your 
system. In my experience these issues are not so intractable on servers. The 
fallout of making packages independent of release levels is yet to be fully 
realized. I wanted to use lynx and had to build it due to a missing module when 
the package was tried. The workstation I am using (11.1) has 568 packages/ports. 
In such an environment there will never be no dependency issues.

Even in OS-land I had to roll this system back to 11.1 because 11.2 broke the
WiFi support for the card my laptop uses. The OS guys face the same issues with
hardware that the application developers face with graphics and other needed
libraries. I think this is the world we choose to live in.



Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?alpine.BSF.2.20.1810182028060.56592>