Date: Mon, 23 Mar 1998 12:38:00 -0600 From: Frank Pawlak <fpawlak@execpc.com> To: nik@iii.co.uk Cc: stable@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: A day in the life of a hacker (was: Re: 'Code Freeze') Message-ID: <98032312400700.11920@darkstar.connect.com>
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Nik, I for one have found your documentation on make world most useful. I am fairly new to UNIX and FreeBSD, and have completed five or six make worlds. Could not have done them without your docs. Cheers, Frank On Mon, 23 Mar 1998, nik@iii.co.uk wrote: > Hi, > > <noflame> > > On Mon, Mar 23, 1998 at 04:57:11PM +0100, Dag-Erling Coidan Smørgrav wrote: > > nik@iii.co.uk writes: > > > On Sat, Mar 21, 1998 at 05:46:11PM +0100, Dag-Erling Coidan Smørgrav wrote: > > > > [make world story] > > > You haven't merged in changes that have been made to the /etc directory. > > > This may bite you later. You also haven't updated the /dev directory, which > > > may also bite you later. > > > > Oh, yeah, right, I forgot that I am a complete idiot, have no idea how > > FreeBSD is designed and have never made world before. Gee, sorry, > > Officer. I'll be more careful in the future. > > Sat on this side of the keyboard I have no idea of your expertise with > FreeBSD. I also have no idea of the level of expertise of anyone else who > reads your message and thinks "Oh, that sounds easy, I'll give it a try." > And then mails -questions or -stable (or -current) when they have problems. > > That's why my reply was sent back to the mailing list and not to you > (although you will probably have received a cc:). > > I've already had 2 e-mail messages today as a result of my reply to you from > folks basically saying "Nice page, didn't realise there was such a lot to > doing 'make world', but you make it pretty clear. I feel more confident about > this now." > > > Nik, you are *not* the sole authority on 'make world'. > > I couldn't agree more. I am, however, one of very few people who's bothered > to try and document the process (as I see it). > > > Other people > > also have brains. Other people also have a long experience with > > FreeBSD. Other people sometimes even read their cvsup logs and keep > > track of what has changed since their last make world so they will > > know what needs to be done. > > And others don't, and they read messages on the mailing lists that hand > wave the process by just saying "You can re-make the world now", or "Now > merge in the changes to /etc" without explaining what this actually means. > > That's my intended audience. Sorry that you caught it this time. > > > > <URL:http://www.nothing-going-on.demon.co.uk/FreeBSD/make-world/make-world.html>; > > > > > > is definitely worth a read (typos and all, I've just spotted a couple, rats). > > > > You forgot to enclose this in <SHAMELESS PLUG> ... </SHAMELESS PLUG>. > > Why? What if I'd used <URL:http://www.freebsd.org/handbook/handbook242.html>; > instead? > > > Frankly, I find your 'make world' guide (yes, I did read it, at about > > the time you first put it up) > > If you have the time I'd appreciate you taking another look. It's changed > significantly in the past eight months or so. In particular, it talks > about more versions of FreeBSD, and some actions that I'd previously > suggested were a *must* (such as doing the build in single user mode) are > now shown as being ommitable, if the reader is confident. > > > overconservative and overproblematizing, though it contains much useful > > information. > > Strangely, I don't think you've ever contacted me about this before? I > welcome comments and corrections about the tutorial, and as the list of > contributors shows, many people have taken the time and trouble to do > just that. > > But generalisations such as yours above don't help me. > > > Did it ever occur to you that it might actually scare people away from > > 'make world' instead of teaching them how to do it? > > Not really. But then if 38 80x25 screenfulls of text scares someone then > they (IMHO) shouldn't be trying to upgrade by recompiling their system, > they'll almost certainly be more comfortable with sysinstall's 'Upgrade' > option. > > FWIW, I'm (slowly) working on a way of tagging the information in the > tutorial as being aimed at a specific class of user. This will (eventually) > allow me to easily produce versions of the tutorial with differing amounts > of 'background fluff' as appropriate. But I'm not there yet. > > Whatever. > > As I say, sorry you got caught by the 'make-world autoresponse' embedded > in my finger tips, I'll try and be less trigger happy in the future. And > if you can take the time to look at the latest version of the document, > I'd appreciate any suggestions for improvements. > > N > > </noflame> > > <flame> > > Oh, I have to have 'flame' section huh? > > Um, er, "Your mother wears Army boots". > > Gosh, that was fairly pathetic. I think I'd better stick to trying to > argue the merits of the documentation, rather than getting all hot and > bothered by it. > > </flame> > -- > Work: nik@iii.co.uk | FreeBSD + Perl + Apache > Rest: nik@nothing-going-on.demon.co.uk | Remind me again why we need > Play: nik@freebsd.org | Microsoft? > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-stable" in the body of the message To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-stable" in the body of the message
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