Re: Convert all packages to ports

Please let me add this:

On Sat, 3 Jul 2010 03:37:14 +1000 (EST), Ian Smith <smithi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
The only difference is that a package is a port built with its default
options. Sometimes that might not be suitable and you'll want to make
it with other options. One way to tell if something was installed by
making a port is that /var/db/ports will contain a directory for that
port with the file 'options', created or updated by 'make config'.

A package is a precompiled port - as you said correctly, using
the default options for that port. Nothing more or less. It *is*
that simple. :-)



I don't know where these 'do not mix ports and packages' warnings come
from, but I suspect it's from people who think that they're different :)

I think it may have come from PC-BSD, taking into mind their PBI
system, like "do not mix PBI with ports or packages". :-)



And it's not true that packages are only built for releases; any port
that doesn't have (eg) distribution restrictions on binary packages will
find its way into the queue on the package build systems, and update the
Latest/ package, after every update.

Correct again. Packages are updated regularly (with the corresponding
port's default options), but it may (!) be interesting to incorporate
daily changes of the ports tree and keep the own installed software
up-to-date, in an absolutely bleeding-edge state.

Personally, there are only few ports that I really want or need to
install via ports. Specific optimization, e. g. due to limited
hardware resources, as well as for example codecs to include (I'm
talking about mencoder / mplayer here), or the pure absence of
precompiled packages (like OpenOffice) requires this.



> > My original question's intention was to prevent me from having a
> > system where some packages were installed with 'pkg_add' while
> > others were installed with 'make'.
>
> portmaster is probably the easiest road to get you there.

Sure, or portupgrade.

The portupgrade set of tools also included pkgdb. If you plan to
mix several methods of installing (e. g. portinstall, make install,
pkg_add -r), use

# pkgdb -aF

before and after you installed (or removed) something. This will
keep portupgrade's database up to date, so it takes into mind when
you *didn't* use it to install (or remove) something.



I think both have -P switches to use packages
rather than make from source where the matching package is available,
which is pretty handy on less than awesome boxes for Big Things like
Xorg, KDE and the like .. not to mention Java ..

Or OpenOffice, where this won't work. :-)

But you're correct: For portinstall / portupgrade, -P (use package)
and -PP (use packages only) can be used, and will also affect how to
deal with dependencies.

Finally, portinstall / portupgrade allow you to create a package from
a port you've just installed, see -p in the manual.




--
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...
_______________________________________________
freebsd-questions@xxxxxxxxxxx mailing list
http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxx"

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Strange capture of my eth0 interface.
    ... but I doubt if there is any connection. ... so I did a fresh install. ... > then seeing that the package manager does indeed detect the switch - don't ... > Port numbers are like telephones. ...
    (comp.os.linux.security)
  • Re: A portupgrade question
    ... I've run portupgrade -a to upgrade a bunch of ports, ... portupgrade has tried to install mysql-client, ... to install it again (or if it needs upgrading, ... handled through the ldconfig_compat port which installs precisely one file: ...
    (freebsd-questions)
  • Re: YAPIB (was: Drawing graphics on terminal)
    ... if I want to install package A which requires B and C, ... This reduces the likelihood that network installs will get ... package sources without having to go bug the "Official FreeBSD FTP Package ... be automatically starting a port compile just because it notices that there's ...
    (freebsd-hackers)
  • Re: amd64 questions
    ... so if you want to install a 64 bit package ... install of a 32-bit pkg with its dependencies. ... them (ie libraries in /usr/lib32). ... have a broken copy of the tarball the port is using. ...
    (freebsd-hackers)
  • Re: Portinstall question
    ... I was just wondering why you would want to use portinstall to ... install new software, rather than: ... portinstall is just portupgrade by another name. ... an already installed port. ...
    (freebsd-questions)