Questions about packages and ports

[Svein Halvor Halvorsen]

* Sean Murphy [2005-06-27 10:59 -0700]
>  I like to use the pkg_add -r feature of FreeBSD, however I have run 
>  into a problem where the ports have a more current version of the app 
>  then the package of the same app.
>
>  It seems the ports collection is updated more then the package 
>  collection is this true?


The packages are automatically built from the port-collection. So a 
package is a binary pre-build version of the corresponding port. The ports 
collection are updated several times a day, while the rebuild-process 
takes a long time. 

This compilation takes place on the package building clusters 
(pointyhat.freebsd.org and some other cluster of which I cannot remember 
the name). Once the peckages have been built, they're uploaded to the 
master ftp-site, and will then be propagated to the mirror-sites.

The packages are rebuilt about once a week, I think. 


>  Is the maintainer of a package and a port the same person?  Are they 
>  responsible for updating the package and the port?

Since the packages are automatically built, they don't have a maintainer 
in the same way as the ports do. I guess it is the Release Engineer team 
that's in charge of the packages that come with a release, but the one's 
that's on the ftp-sites are just automatically built from the ports. This 
process is prone to errors, and if a port becomes broken, I guess the 
corresponding package might get out-of-date. You could take a look at the 
errorlog on pointyhat.freebsd.org, but I'm not too sure about this 
process. Someone else could probably fill in the blanks. Or you could do a 
search on the web. I'm sure this process is described in detail somwhere.

Bottom line is that the port maintainer makes sure that the port is 
buildable. The pointyhat-cluster then builds it to make a package. The 
package as such, has no maintainer of its own.


>  Packages will download dependencys required by the app does the ports do
>  this as well?

Yes!