Distribute FreeBSD via packages instead of "global" tarballs

[Matthew Seaman]

On 13/07/2013 15:36, Florent Peterschmitt wrote:
> Is it possible to package FreeBSD distribution under little packages,
> aiming easy and small upgrades ?
> 
> Or this has already been thought ?

This is certainly technically possible, and it's something there's been
occasional speculation about; but as far as I know, no one has yet come
up with a demonstration setup.

There are a number of practical problems that would need sorting out --

   * pkg isn't part of the base system -- by design -- which makes it
     tricky to use to register installing base system components on a
     bare metal system.

   * Similarly, pkg pretty much ignores the facilities and shared
     libraries from base when calculating dependencies and so forth for
     ports.  If base is pkg-ised, should that still be the case?

   * Given that the base system is divided up into numerous smaller
     packages, should those packages be registered in the same database
     as is used for ports? (ie. /var/db/pkg/local.sqlite)

Packaging the base system is an idea that has been floating around for a
long time -- since long before pkg was conceived, certainly.  But it has
never really gone anywhere.  Using pkg for the job would have some
advantages over trying to do the same thing with the old pkg_tools, but
would it ultimately be competitive with the way the installation media
works now or to freebsd-update(8)?

	Cheers,

	Matthew


-- 
Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil.
PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey


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