Why build INDEX ?

[Erik Trulsson]

On Mon, Oct 20, 2003 at 08:39:37AM +0100, Matthew Seaman wrote:
> On Sun, Oct 19, 2003 at 11:49:18PM +0200, Erik Trulsson wrote:
> > On Sun, Oct 19, 2003 at 12:42:13PM -0700, Kent Stewart wrote:
> 
> > > If that was true, why does the man page for portupgrade tell you to do 
> > > the following 
> > > 
> > >    o   To perform upgrades effectively and correctly, remember to run
> > >         pkgdb(1) with -F on occasions to fix dependency discrepancies,     
> > >         and run portsdb(1) with -Uu every time you CVSup the ports tree 
> > >         to keep your ports INDEX database up-to-date in sync with the 
> > >         tree.
> 
> > Ask the people who wrote that manpage.
> > The portupgrade port might use INDEX.  I don't use portupgrade, so I
> > neither know nor care about what it does.
> > The utilities in the base system don't need an up-to-date INDEX.
> 
> That's not entirely true.  pkg_version(1) won't work without an INDEX
> file.

Yes, it will.  pkg_version will first check against the version of the
port in the ports tree.  Only if that is not available is INDEX
consulted.  Read the manpage for pkg_version(1) if you don't believe
me.
 
> 
> In general, INDEX is used by any application that attempts to compare
> the version numbers of your installed ports with the version numbers
> available in the ports tree.  However the INDEX file has no direct
> effect on compiling or installing any particular port.

s/is used/can be used/ and you are correct.

> 
> If you have some other mechanism for deciding which ports need to be
> updated, then you don't need the INDEX file.

Like checking the ports tree directly, which is what pkg_version(1)
does.




-- 
<Insert your favourite quote here.>
Erik Trulsson
ertr1013 at student.uu.se