Reading warnings when installing multiple ports

[Jerry McAllister]

On Mon, May 11, 2009 at 06:52:39AM +0100, Matthew Seaman wrote:

> Kelly Jones wrote:
> >I often use "make -DBATCH install" to install ports.
> >
> >Problem: many ports spew out a warning/todo message after you install
> >them (eg, "you must manually create an x user" or something).
> >
> >Since ports install "recursively", I miss most of these messages.
> >
> >Can I tell ports to store these messages for me somewhere?
> >
> >Obviously, I can "make -DBATCH install > /tmp/outfile", but that'll
> >log all the "install", "test", etc commands that I don't want to see:
> >I just want to see the warnings at the end of each install.
> 
> 
> portmaster will save up package messages and display them all at the
> end of the session.  I believe a similar feature is planned for portupgrade
> but as far as I know it hasn't been released yet.

> 
> In any case, you can redisplay the pkg-message for any installed port
> by:
> 
>   % pkg_info -Dx portname
> 
> 	Cheers,
> 
> 	Matthew
> 

This is handy and seems to work.

But, I very often wish there was a convenient way to see some of those
messages and especially messages about things one has to do during
the install, such as manually installing something or getting some
license thing handled, before I start the port install.   

Sometimes I get a question in the middle of an install that I do not
know how to answer and it is an awfully inconvenient time to have
to start scrounging for information.    Having a commannd that
would display all those things and maybe some related information
or pointers to information for making an intelligent response - before
starting the make -  would be very helpful.

////jerry      

> 
> -- 
> Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil.                   7 Priory Courtyard
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