bento and the ports system

[Jon Noack]

On 05/31/04 21:40, Kris Kennaway wrote:
> On Mon, May 31, 2004 at 05:29:38PM -0500, Jon Noack wrote:
>> What I envision: Packages are already being built (for example, 
>> http://pointyhat.freebsd.org/errorlogs/i386-packages-5-latest/). 
>> The ports system would default to using the package if available, 
>> but there would be an option to always compile from source.  If the
>>  package wasn't available (not yet built, NO_PACKAGE, etc.), the 
>> port would be compiled from source as before.  All that is needed 
>> is to set the default PACKAGESITE to the above URL (or something 
>> slightly different depending on architecture/release), make 
>> packages the default, and ensure there is enough bandwidth to 
>> handle the load (mirrors?).  I know security would be a major 
>> consideration, but handling the load is the only technical 
>> difficulty I see...
> 
> Packages on pointyhat may not always be consistent or working. 
> Furthermore, they may not interoperate as expected with what you have
>  on your own system, because ports are customized for installed 
> packages and build settings (e.g. building with GNOME support when 
> you have GNOME installed).

Yeah, I thought about that but figured a package with a default 
configuration might still be useful.

> The packages on the FTP site are updated periodically from a 
> known-good build.  If you don't mind about the limitations, you can 
> already use these automatically with pkg_add -r or portupgrade -P.

I do this for several machines already.  It works OK, but as you say, it 
is limited.

>> P.S. The opinion on the DragonFly kernel list was that it was a 
>> good idea in principle, but that the *BSD package system is very 
>> fragile.
> 
> Yes, well, everyone has an opinion about packages.

True enough, but your opinion counts more than most.

Jon