cvs commit: doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/cutting-edge chapter.sgml

[Alexander Leidinger]

On Sat, 4 Dec 2010 17:56:15 +0000 (UTC) Benedict Reuschling
<bcr at FreeBSD.org> wrote:


> bcr         2010-12-04 17:56:15 UTC
> 
>   FreeBSD doc repository
> 
>   Modified files:
>     en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/cutting-edge chapter.sgml 
>   Log:
>   Add a section about deleting old files, directories and libraries
> with a short description why this is necessary.

Pointy hat to: netchild (for not doing something like this when he
implemented this).

Improvement suggestions:
 - While this is already covered in "implemented elsewhere":
   Changing the version number of a library can also be a
   reason. Strictly speaking this is "elsewhere", from another
   point of strict-view this is not elsewhere but in the the
   same library, just another version.
 - There is not only the argument of storage space, but also
   security (if an old lib-version is used which may contain
   a security hole or not), and stability (old lib version
   may have a little bit different behavior, or may cause crashes
   if mixed with more recently compiled stuff which includes
   a reference to a more recent version of the same lib). This
   is mentioned at the end of the description, but IMHO it would
   be better to describe this in the beginning.
 - check-old includes check-old-libs, no need to run both.
 - I suggest to delete the files after a mergemaster was done,
   and not directly after the installworld. This way an outdated
   rc- script can not reference something which gets deleted.
 - Running delete-old-libs blindly is not a good idea. Before
   the delete-old-libs there should be a check if something
   references those libs (e.g. with sysutils/libchk), and if
   yes, the ports/programs/libs should be recompiled before
   the delete-old-libs target is executed. It is mentioned
   at the end that you shouldn't remove files/libs which
   are still used, but IMHO it would be better to mention
   it before telling to do delete-old(-libs).
 - BATCH_DELETE_OLD_FILES does not need to be an env-var,
   as a make-var it works too:
     "make -DBATCH_DELETE_OLD_LIBS delete-old"
 - As portmaster is mentioned, I suggest to mention portupgrade
   too.

Bye,
Alexander.