Date: Wed, 18 Mar 2009 01:11:38 +0100 From: Luigi Rizzo <rizzo@iet.unipi.it> To: Cynthia Flynn <1cynthia2flynn3@telus.net> Cc: ports@FreeBSD.org, luigi@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: FreeBSD Port: syslinux-3.72 Message-ID: <20090318001138.GF95451@onelab2.iet.unipi.it> In-Reply-To: <49C00745.1050607@telus.net> References: <49C00745.1050607@telus.net>
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On Tue, Mar 17, 2009 at 01:25:41PM -0700, Cynthia Flynn wrote: > I would like to draw your attention to this posting in regards to the > syslinux FreeBSD port: > > http://syslinux.zytor.com/archives/2009-March/011749.html > > FWIW, that posting belongs to this thread: > > http://syslinux.zytor.com/archives/2009-February/011548.html > > Of more importance is H. Peter Anvin's private response to me in which > he said this: > > "Okay, that sounds like the FreeBSD port stuff pull in way too > many things that aren't obligatory. Python is only used by one > small contrib script that isn't relevant to 99% of all users > (pretty much only used by large-site system administrators); the > X libraries I have no clue where they even come into the picture! > > Sounds like the FreeBSD ports people either need to factor the > package differently, or suppress some of their dependencies". > > syslinux is a powerful tool, but its FreeBSD port is just too bloated. > And given GRUB's inability to boot logical partitions, this means that a > Linux-free FreeBSD production environment isn't possible for us. Not > the end of the world, I know, but it would be great if a future version > of the syslinux port were cleaned up to require only the truly necessary > dependencies and preferably without the horrible mtools package. The only direct dependencies that syslinux brings in are "perl" (not python) and "mtools". Probably "perl" can be removed, though I did not bother because probably 95% of the systems have it installed already. Patches welcome, of course, and if you want to install syslinux on a reduced system you can just grab the two binaries you need: > ldd `which syslinux` /usr/local/bin/syslinux: libc.so.7 => /lib/libc.so.7 (0x2807f000) > ldd `which mtools` /usr/local/bin/mtools: libcam.so.4 => /lib/libcam.so.4 (0x2809e000) libc.so.7 => /lib/libc.so.7 (0x280ae000) libsbuf.so.4 => /lib/libsbuf.so.4 (0x281b0000) I don't know why you think mtools is horrible, but it has a big reason to be there, as explained in sysutils/syslinux/pkg-descr: This FreeBSD port can additionally operate on plain files containing a FAT image, thus requiring no special privilege. The program relies on mtools to perform the manipulation of the FAT filesystem. I think the extra dependencies that you find listed for syslinux: > grep pkgdep /var/db/pkg/syslinux-3.72/+CONTENTS @pkgdep kbproto-1.0.3 @pkgdep perl-5.8.8_1 @pkgdep pkg-config-0.23_1 @pkgdep xtrans-1.0.4 @pkgdep xproto-7.0.10_1 @pkgdep libXdmcp-1.0.2_1 @pkgdep libXau-1.0.3_2 @pkgdep libX11-1.1.3_1,1 @pkgdep libICE-1.0.4,1 @pkgdep libSM-1.0.3,1 @pkgdep mtools-3.9.10_4 come directly from mtools, which seems to have a similar list of dependencies. Once the mtools dependency list is fixed, we should be ok. cheers luigi
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