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Date:      Thu, 27 Jun 2002 13:31:12 +0300
From:      Giorgos Keramidas <keramida@ceid.upatras.gr>
To:        David Kramer <david@thekramers.net>
Cc:        "Roger 'Rocky' Vetterberg" <listsub@rambo.simx.org>, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: FreeBSD, Linux or Solaris
Message-ID:  <20020627103112.GA8849@hades.hell.gr>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.4.44.0206260917060.4765-100000@kramer.thekramers.net>
References:  <3D198036.7020409@rambo.simx.org> <Pine.LNX.4.44.0206260917060.4765-100000@kramer.thekramers.net>

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On 2002-06-26 09:40 +0000, David Kramer wrote:

> I have to go through the collection of ports and make sure
> everything I need is there, but I'm sure it is.

If it's listed under /usr/ports it's there alright ;)
I'm not sure I understand this part very well...

> BTW, is there a way to check what software is installed on your box?
	% pkg_info | more
	BitchX-1.0c19       An alternative ircII color client with optional GTK/GNOME s
	autoconf-2.53       Automatically configure source code on many Un*x platforms

This will print one line of information for all the installed
packages / ports.

> Is there an automated way of uninstalling ports?

Just like pkg_info can display information about the ports, there is
pkg_delete which can uninstall them.  I have more than once cleaned up
all my installed ports and started all over from a clean /usr/local,
with a minor script like:

	#/bin/sh
	cd /tmp
	pkg_info | awk '{print $1}' > PACKAGES
	NUM=`wc -l PACKAGES | awk '{print $1}'`
	while [ $NUM -ne 0 ];  do \
	    pkg_delete -f `cat PACKAGES` ; \
	    pkg_info | awk '{print $1}' > PACKAGES ; \
	    NUM=`wc -l PACKAGES | awk '{print $1}'` ; \
	  done

> One of the aspects touted as FreeBSD's strenghts, the fact that all
> the software comes from one place, can also be seen as a weakness.

Rarely, but I can see your point.

> I could get RPM's for almost anything imaginable, because if one
> website doesn't have it, another one will.

Sure, but can you (or should you) trust the stability  of a server on
something that can quickly become a combination of random RPMs fetched
from a few dozen different sites?  Does the burden of keeping notes
where these RPMs come from fall heavy on the back of you, the
administrator then?  Keeping 50+ packages on a workstation up to date
would require a bigger amount of time for me than now, if I had to
visit 50+ homepages and check for updates every day.  Now I simply run
cvsup to upgrade my /usr/ports and use:

	# pkg_version | fgrep '<'

to see if anything needs to be updated.


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