installation sequence

[b. f.]

>Does anybody have an idea of what the oder of files and dependencies is
>to install programs without all sorts of nonsensical errors?

This is supposed to be automated, but of course things can sometimes
go wrong, either through hardware problems, user-error, or an error in
Ports.

>I usually have no problem installing FreeBsd whatever with apache22,
>cups, samba, php, mysql xorg etc. etc. I say usually because from time
>to time there do crop up some conflicts and they can usually be resolved
>by just looking at the error messages when the install is interrupted...
>usually one reinstalls the guilty port and voila! all things are in an
>ordered universe!
>But how do you avoid those error messages... I installed a pretty
>minimal 7.2 about a week ago and since then have been putzing about with
>a more serious installation of 7.2 on a larger disk to include xorg and
>a number of pretty cumbersome applications.
>I usually start with samba as that permits me to wander about on my lan
>and download and play around with other stuff while I am waiting for
>those substantial installs like jdk and xorg et al.
>So now, I have installed samba... works fine... thereafter I have been
>installing jdk16 and some other proggies like openldap and php5 and
>mysql ... actually, I was doing those because apache22 wouldn't
>compile... it grinds out a slew of errors that all seem to be related to
>ldap..."util_ldap.c:2135 (or other numbers) and all have the notation
>"undeclared (first use in this function) and finally the ghost gives up
>with Error code 1.

It sounds like a missing header, but you need to tell us more before
we can attempt to figure out why.  Don't spend a lot of time and
energy paraphrasing what happened, but rather include the end of a
build transcript with your message, beginning a few lines above where
the first error appeared.  You can cut-and-paste, or use script1) to
capture the output, or whatever -- but we need to see the _exact_
output.  Also include a list of the ports that you have installed now,
and  the OPTIONS settings, if any, of the port and the ports that it
depends upon. Also check to see when you are installing a new port
that:

1) you are using a up-to-date ports tree and INDEX file (or at least a
snapshot that has no known errors), and an up-to-date portsdb and
pkgdb if you are using portupgrade;
2) all of your currently installed ports are up-to-date (or at least
consistent with your ports tree);
3) you are starting with clean work directories for the port that you
want to  build and install, and all ports that will also need to be
build and installed as missing dependencies;
4) your installed ports and base system have not been corrupted;
5) you have no known hardware problems, like bad memory or a
malfunctioning hard drive.

And you know, you don't have to build from source -- you could just
download and install prebuilt binary packages, either from FreeBSD
Ports or some other packaging system...


b.