any use to build from source?

[Patrick Useldinger]

Giorgos Keramidas wrote:

> Indeed, packages-4-stable, packages-4.10-release on ftp.freebsd.org
> don't include openoffice.  A search at google though yields:
> 	http://projects.imp.ch/openoffice/
> which does list FreeBSD packages of OO-1.0.3 and OO-1.1.0 :-)

Which is not 1.1.1 or the latest 1.1.2.

> This is preferable from the end-user's perspective, but I think it would
> exponentially increase the number of precompiled binaries the mirrors
> would have to keep available.  If a port has 3 options and depends on
> another with 4 options, to host every possible combination that one
> might want on the FTP site 12 different combinations would have to be
> built and packaged!  With thousands of ports in the tree this means a
> mind-boggingly huge number of different builds and packages can be built.
> 
> Is it possible to satisfy all the users with precompiled packages?  No.

My argument is the other way round: build a package will *all* available 
options. It will be bloated, but still smaller (in download size) and 
faster to install. If you like it, keep it, and want to tweak it 
afterwards, OK, go for it, the investment is worthwile

That makes one single package that should suit everybody (unless options 
are mutually exclusive, of course, but that's not often the case AFAIK).

I believe that, for most software, we are just end-users.

> I have a local patch to fetchmail in my local /usr/ports tree that fixes
> a bug recent versions have with APOP:
> 
> It didn't take me more than 15 minutes to write, but then I'm working as
> a programmer so that's "normal".  Fetchmail is, IMHO, a reasonably sized
> project.  I'm not saying this to sound insulting to you in any way, or
> to boast about my ''l33t h4x0r skillz'' -- that's nonsense.  I am only
> bringing it up as a good example where building the port *does* have
> obvious advantages.

That is indeed a reasonable example, but I am not sure there are many of 
them. I also believe that the original author should, if at all 
possible, do this correction, because it is useful to many people.

-pu