Request for buildworld clarification

[Polytropon]

On Fri, 12 Sep 2014 07:51:03 -0400, Michael Sierchio wrote:
> On Sep 10, 2014 11:42 PM, "Adam Vande More" <amvandemore at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > On Wed, Sep 10, 2014 at 2:57 PM, Polytropon <freebsd at edvax.de> wrote:
> >
> > > On Wed, 10 Sep 2014 12:08:59 -0600, Dave Babb wrote:
> > > > Good Afternoon All,
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > I am requesting a clarification on make buildworld. I am junior with
> > > > FreeBSD (< 8 months)...and I am getting confused with Gentoo's
> > > > definition of build world, and FreeBSD's.
> > >
> > > FreeBSD, unlike Linux, is separated in "the operating system"
> > > (consisting of "world" and "kernel"), and "everything else",
> > > which is what the ports collection contains (ports, packages
> > > and the like).
> >
> >
> > This is the right definition.  To put it in a real world context, go on a
> > test linux system and delete every package.  Try to recover.   Now do the
> > same on a test FreeBSD system.  After you have done this, you will
> > understand the advantages of separating the OS and  applications.
> 
> I agree, but there are packages in the base system that are not managed as
> packages.  Even though there is general consensus that these are part of a
> "minimal" install, they should be in the pkg db to facilitate clean removal
> or replacement. In the past, sendmail and bind fit into this category.

The transition from OS component to independent port (or package)
has already happened, for example for the documentation which is
not part of the base OS install anymore, but can be obtained via
packages, as it is optional. However, I do not consider the
system's _internal_ mailer (here: sendmail) optional, so having
it in the base system is not that bad. It's easy to replace sendmail
with something else. The name server, well, _that_ could easily be
a port when the system doesn't run any name server (and does name
lookups only through "3rd party servers"), but probably some of
the related tools should be part of the OS, because people tend
to use them even if they don't run a name server themselves (e. g.,
dig, host, nslookup and the like).

FreeBSD can be turned into a minimal install by using src.conf.
The OS itself is not that "cluttered" that you can easily take
out essential parts and expect the whole thing to keep running. :-)


-- 
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...