Newby Question: What to do when one port can't recognize another port?

[James]

On Tue, 2007-10-30 at 06:42 -0700, Jeff D wrote:

> Matthew,
> 
> On 10/30/07, Matthew Seaman <m.seaman at infracaninophile.co.uk> wrote:
> >
> > This is a known problem with the apache22 port.  At the moment it only
> > understands about Berkeley DB versions up to 4.4.x -- there's an open
> > ticket in the PR system which requests support for versions up to 4.6.x:
> > http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=ports/116637
> >
> > Until that gets fixed, use BDB 4.4.x instead.  To make that the default
> > version on your system add this to /etc/make.conf:
> >
> >   WITH_BDB_VER=           44
> 
> 
> Thanks for pointing this out.
> 
> I'd thought that the port system in Freebsd was assured to be internally
> consistent with all other stuff in the system by a central team (QA?).  I
> didn't realize that each port was from a different person, and that the
> process could get held up for weeks or months.
> 
> I guess your advice is what I should do.  I'm a little nervous about undoing
> what's already been done, and think I might just start over with db44 to be
> safe.
> 
> Knowing this now, I guess I should also make a list of the programs and
> versions I need, and check each & every one for problems before I start
> again.  If something popular like the Apache Web Server has long standing
> unresolved issues like this, other programs may too.
> 
> A friend is pushing me to use Ubunutu Linux instead, saying that stuff like
> this doesn't happen with it, but I'm not so convinced.  After being  'sold'
> on the Freebsd ports, it's worth some more reading.
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> Regards,
> 
>   Jeff

All OSes have their good and bad points. Sometimes, even the mighty
ubuntu pushes out broken updates (such as the one a version or two back
that broke a significant percentage's X-configuration). And ubuntu has a
bug tracker for a reason, not just for kicks.

Just like FreeBSD.

If you want a smoother sailing way of going forwards, try installing the
older version of apache that's available in ports. Its install is the
one that's handbook documented. If you decide to go with ubuntu, I hope
it goes well for you. They have a friendly community that can help most
problems.


James