[wplug-bsd] /usr/ports maintenance mechanisms

[Rod Person]

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On Friday 09 April 2004 1:11 am, you wrote:
>
> This is where I am still a little confused.  If I do
>
> -R#- pkg_add -n -r mozilla-firebird
> looking up ftp.freebsd.org
> connecting to ftp.freebsd.org:21
> setting passive mode
> opening data connection
> initiating transfer
> Fetching
> ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-4.9-release/Latest/mo
>zilla-firebird.tgz...
>
> and this would be (via manual confirmation with ftp)
>
> lrwxrwxrwx   1 ftpuser  ftpusers        35 Nov 27 23:09
> mozilla-firebird.tgz -> ../All/mozilla-firebird-0.6.1_1.tgz
>
> Now, I want to upgrade to a newer firebird/firefox.  It appears that
> firefox 0.8 is available if I update /usr/ports.  I don't know if there
> is a FreeBSD 4.9 precompiled package available, but let's assume there
> is.

Ah, in theory you are correct, I believe. But, the pre-compiled packages 
aren't updated as fast as the ports. Sometimes the packages won't be update 
until the next release. The last update I did was from KDE 3.1 to KDE 3.2, I 
use the ports sytsem so I ugrade 1 day after the official release of KDE 3.2. 
But some people that use packages where still complaining that the package 
wasn't there for about 2 weeks.

> I actually did not see anything about "Keeping Current" at
>
> http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/index.html

I'm sorry its this...
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/cutting-edge.html


> The frequency of changes was one of many reasons I wanted to give FreeBSD
> a serious look.  Nostalgia another.
>
> The portupgrade/portinstall mechanism is where I still need some
> clarification.
>
> Reading the handbook section "Synchronizing Your Source", I created
> a "ports-supfile" from the example file.
>
> If I were to run "cvsup" to update /usr/ports, then would
>
> portupgrade -PP mozilla-firebird
>
> remotely fetch an updated precompiled package for mozilla-firebird?
> The man page for portupgrade implies that this is what would happen,
> but before I cvsup /usr/ports I want to know if this is true.

If the package exists it will use the package. If the package does not exists 
then it will build from the source.


> Yes, this helped very much.  I just need to develop a good understanding
> of the maintenance and release model for the base system and /usr/ports
> so that I can determine a sensible maintenance method for my systems.
>

I think you've got a good hold on things. I think it just that pre-compiled 
packages don't have a constant or fixed release cycle.

- -- 
Rod

http://opensourcebeef.homeunix.org
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