From owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Mon Dec 7 16:50:28 2015 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@mailman.ysv.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) by mailman.ysv.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 058DD9B71F3 for ; Mon, 7 Dec 2015 16:50:28 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from steve@sohara.org) Received: from uk1mail2513.mymailbank.co.uk (UK1MAIL2513-PERMANET.IE.mymailbank.co.uk [217.69.47.44]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 761C01365 for ; Mon, 7 Dec 2015 16:50:26 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from steve@sohara.org) Received: from smtp.lan.sohara.org (UnknownHost [88.151.27.41]) by uk1mail2513-d.mymailbank.co.uk with SMTP; Mon, 7 Dec 2015 16:50:12 +0000 Received: from [192.168.63.1] (helo=steve.lan.sohara.org) by smtp.lan.sohara.org with smtp (Exim 4.85 (FreeBSD)) (envelope-from ) id 1a5yzM-000Dhq-Nw for freebsd-questions@freebsd.org; Mon, 07 Dec 2015 16:50:12 +0000 Date: Mon, 7 Dec 2015 16:50:10 +0000 From: Steve O'Hara-Smith To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: [Phishing]Re: Migrating to FreeBSD from Debian Message-Id: <20151207165010.448a646c78be7d75acaf9f5d@sohara.org> In-Reply-To: <5665AFFB.9070407@FreeBSD.org> References: <86poyiuynx.fsf@gmail.com> <56659FC8.8020904@FreeBSD.org> <444mfujmpd.fsf@be-well.ilk.org> <5665AFFB.9070407@FreeBSD.org> X-Mailer: Sylpheed 3.4.3 (GTK+ 2.24.28; amd64-portbld-freebsd10.1) X-Clacks-Overhead: "GNU Terry Pratchett" Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.20 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 07 Dec 2015 16:50:28 -0000 On Mon, 7 Dec 2015 16:12:43 +0000 Matthew Seaman wrote: > On 2015/12/07 15:54, Daniel Feenberg wrote: > > What does the warning mean? That once I have installed a single package > > I can never use ports? So if I want a port, and already have packages, I > > have to uninstall all of the packages first and can never in the future > > install any package? That seems extreme. Or is there a less restrictive > > interpretation that is more correct? > > Usually the reason for mixing ports and packages is because you want > something compiled with non-default options. > > The difficulty arises when you find that despite all your best > intentions, you end up with the default package anyhow, or you end up > installing all the dependencies for the default package and not the ones > for your customized version, or you end up installing a lot of build > dependency things you didn't really want. And then when you go to > upgrade, it breaks all over again in similar but not exactly the same > ways. pkg lock and make missing are your friends. First step after deciding a port is a must is to go into the port and make config to set things up the way you want. Then run make missing and pkg add as much as possible (this to avoid excessive compiling). Finally pkg lock everything you had to build because you changed it. > It's loss of control which is the problem. You may be lucky in that it > 'just works' with your customizations, or it may become a nightmare of > dependency hell from which all right-thinking sysadmins would run away, > screaming. You do need to keep the ports and packages you use in reasonably close sync - ideally use the ports tree the packages are built from. So when you upgrade packages also upgrade the ports tree and rebuild the ports. There is a script called sync-ports which pulls the right ports tree - although the version I have doesn't handle 10.2. The only time life gets nasty is if you have to customise a dependency and something else can't live with that customisation. I've not hit that yet, so far all my needed customisations have been on high level packages. -- Steve O'Hara-Smith