Starting again from Scratch

[Roland Smith]

On Mon, Jun 25, 2007 at 03:18:58PM +0100, Graham Bentley wrote:
> OK, I am fairly new to FreeBSD and returning from a long while away.
> 
> I am currently working on an install I have performed from the 6.2
> release discs I downloaded several days ago.
> 
> I chose X-Kern-Dev install and have a mixed bag of pkg_add -r
> packages, some programs I have downloaded and compiled from source
> from developers sites (Claws-mail and Xfce4 to name 2) as well as
> apps I cd'ed into into /usr/ports/name and made [nvidia for 1]

<snip>

> I am only aware of the names cvsup, portupgrade, portmanager, 
> portsnap, make world etc and am getting this round my neck a 
> bit but this is what I have summized ;
> 
> 1) Do basic [minimal] install of 6.2 rel from disc 1
> 2) pkg_add cvsup-without-gui and get the latest ports installed

No need for that anymore. A rewrite of cvsup in C called csup is part of
the base system in 6.2.

> 3) Build *everything* from this ports tree [including base/kernel?]
> 4) Find out how to keep updated / informed on updates to packages
>    I have installed, and do so where necessary.

That's what you use portmaster(8) or portmanager(8) for. (I use portmaster now).

For updating the ports tree, I use portsnap(8).

First time that you use it:

# portsnap fetch extract

After that;

# portsnap fetch update

Getting a list of installed ports, inluding available updates:

$ portmaster -L >ports.list

If you read the list, you'll see which ones have updates available.

First thing to do is read /usr/ports/UPDATING. Skipping this might leave
you with broken ports, in which case you get to keep both pieces. 

Next you usually update your ports with e.g;

# portmaster -B -d <name_of_port>

Unless UPDATING tells you otherwise. Do read the manual pages of the
tools you're using.

> If anyone can advise, point me in the direction of tutorials
> or step by steps, on the above It would be greatly appreciated.
> 
> I would like to understand why its not so great to just install
> everything from pkg_add, whats the advantages of ports etc 

With pkg_add you get the default options for the port (if any). That
might not be what you want. And not all configuration options can be set
with the OPTIONS mechanism. 
See http://www.xs4all.nl/~rsmith/freebsd/index.html#make.conf

Roland
-- 
R.F.Smith                                   http://www.xs4all.nl/~rsmith/
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