how to build from ports without downloading ports

[Robert Huff]

Roland Smith writes:

>  But why go to all this trouble? Disk space is cheap these days,
>  why not add an extra disk?  If you don't have space in the
>  chassis, consider using an external USB disk for /usr/ports.

	Sometimes ... because the machine hardware is not under your
control.
	In the mid 90's, I worked on a major workstation upgrade for
the customer support division of a large financial services firm: we
were replacing 386/20s with Pentium 90s.
	Most of the old machines were still serviceable - even the ones
that were half-filled with dust still ran - so we looked around for
something to do with them other than the scrap heap.
	Off in a cranny in one of the machine rooms was a 286/<mumble>,
whose job it was to dial out twice a day, retrieve a specific piece
of data, and put it in an equally specific place on the file
server.  It had been running 24/7 for, well, since you could hook a
286 up to a network file server..
	Surely, we thought, we could move things over and increase
reliability, etc..
	The word came down from two or threee levels up the food chain:
"Absolutely not.  Don't even shut it down to dust."


				Robert Huff