/usr/src/Makefile instructions

[David Wolfskill]

On Fri, May 23, 2008 at 05:49:48AM -0700, KAYVEN RIESE wrote:
> 
> My professor told me about instructions being in /usr/src/Makefile
> for rebuilding my world.  I feel better about following them because
> they are close to the command line to me and can't be out of date, right?

No.  Any comments or documentation *can* be "out of date" or otherwise
misleading or incorrect.

> I am looking at this list of makes:

Err.. that would be "make targets," yeah?

> # check-old           - List obsolete directories/files/libraries.
> # check-old-dirs      - List obsolete directories.
> # check-old-files     - List obsolete files.
> # check-old-libs      - List obsolete libraries.
> # delete-old          - Delete obsolete directories/files/libraries.
> # delete-old-dirs     - Delete obsolete directories.
> # delete-old-files    - Delete obsolete files.
> # delete-old-libs     - Delete obsolete libraries.
> #
> 
> 
> I am wondering if I should try these out, or will it just be
> taken care of with the "cannonical" methods.

I expect that depends a great deal on what your objectives are.

If you are merely trying to keep a system up-to-date, you are (IMO)
better off reading, then paying attention to changes in,
/usr/src/UPDATING.

If, on the other hand, you are curious about just what make(1) will do
when told to make a given target, by all means experiment to your
heart's content (on your own system(s)).  But I encourage you to
consider the utility of the "-n" flag to make(1).  Well, that, as well
as the value of good backup & restore procedures.

> I seem to have lots
> of big problems with my configuration.. I don't know.  Things
> work, but dmesg has errors, and many ports fail and their makes,
> even if they succeed have errors and warnings.
> 
> If I "delete-old-.." will I be messing things up?

Hard to say without more information about your current configuration
than is likely to fit in a message to the mailing list.  If the
complaints are sufficiently severe (note that the mere quantity of them
isn't a relaible measure of this), you may be better off recording
salient configuration information (e.g., what ports you tried to
install), make a good backup (assuming there's data worth recovering),
wiping the system clean, and starting over.  It is certainly possible to
mess a system up enough that recovery is problematic, at best.

Peace,
david
-- 
David H. Wolfskill				david at catwhisker.org
I submit that "conspiracy" would be an appropriate collective noun for cats.

See http://www.catwhisker.org/~david/publickey.gpg for my public key.
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