Newbie questions (updating, ports, etc.)

[S4mmael]

2009/12/3 Richard Mace <macerl at telkomsa.net>:
> 1.) Keeping installed ports/packages up to date.
>
> As far as I can tell from the docs, perhaps the most convenient method is to
> use something like:
>
> # portsnap fetch update
> # pkgdb -F
> # portupgrade --batch -aP     (do I need an "R" here?)
>

I don't see any reason to upgrade all installed ports on daily or
weekly basis. In most cases you'll get nothing as the result of
updating some port version 2.16.134 to new version 2.16.135 but lost
time.


> which should first try to find a package from the repositories and failing that
> will fall back to a port. What is the current wisdom here?
Yes, it's right.

> Is it safe to use the --batch switch? As far as I understand, this will use
> the configuration defaults and not prompt the user whenever a port requires
> some user (options) configuration. Is this interpretation correct?
If the package is in use, there will no prompt. While building a port,
configuration in which this port was built last time is used. If there
is no such configuration, then port builds with default options.

> Related to the above, are the default options that appear in the ncurses
> dialogues the same as those used in the building of packages?
It's really intresting.

> 3.) Upgrading ports seems to take considerable time (at least with my
> experiments on a 5 year old Pentium IV). I am keen to adopt FreeBSD as my
> desktop for work  (Physics Professor, Research and teaching). Is it feasible
> in a work environment to upgrade ports without getting bogged down in a
> compile-a-thon, leaving one with a useless workstation. (My target machine
> will be an 8-core HP z600 (Xeon) which leads me to believe that I could do the
> upgrading in the background while I continue to work uninterrupted. I'd like
> to hear others experiences here.)
Try to use something like "nice portupgrade -a". Read "man nice".