Date: Fri, 08 Oct 1999 15:08:22 -0700 From: bmah@CA.Sandia.GOV (Bruce A. Mah) To: Mike Meyer <mwm@phone.net> Cc: freebsd-ports@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: install newer version over old one... Message-ID: <199910082208.PAA74143@nimitz.ca.sandia.gov> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Fri, 08 Oct 1999 14:22:48 PDT." <Pine.BSF.4.10.9910081409360.357-100000@guru.phone.net>
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--==_Exmh_-223783362P Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii If memory serves me right, Mike Meyer wrote: > On Fri, 8 Oct 1999, Bruce A. Mah wrote: > :->My two cents (which have probably already been expressed very well by > :->others on this list) are that: Explicit support for finding two > :->versions of "the same" port is a Good Thing (TM). Whoever does this > :->also needs to think very carefully about what "newer" means (in > :->particular, keeping in mind that "newer" != "better"). There's also > :->the idea that a package can change without changing the version number > :->of the installed software (e.g. someone adds a patch-xx or tweaks the > :->Makefile). > > Do you really need the ability to find two versions of "the same" > port, or do you just need the ability to reliably decide if it is safe > to overwrite portA with portB (i.e. - portB is a "newer" version of > portA)? If the latter, then port naming conventions will do the trick. Hmmm. I wrote that sentence poorly. What I meant is having the ability to decide whether two ports referred to "the same" piece of software. For example, ssh-1.2.27 and ssh-2.0.13 look (by the package naming conventions) to be different installed versions of the same piece of software. But they're actually very different. The ports directory tries to differentiate these two (/usr/ports/security/ssh vs. /usr/ ports/security/ssh2) but that distinction is lost in /var/db/pkg. Consider also that both Tcl and Netscape Communicator both have multiple ports in the ports tree. However, with Tcl (I think), you can have multiple versions coexisting, but with Communicator, you can't. > I think something like that is going to be required in case, because > what we are (well, I am) discussing is automatically rebuilding the > installed ports (or re-installing the installed packages) during a > system upgrade. This is going to requires rules that programs can use > for finding and rebuilding ports. I've always been a little leery of this idea of automatically rebuilding or reinstalling packages. I don't think I'll ever use it. However, I think that having all of the infrastructure that's necessary to support it is a Very Good Thing (TM) as it's going to make package management easier in general. I was thinking that some kind of serial number might be useful to catch small incremental changes (i.e. I added a patch but didn't change the version number) but that sounds like a PITA and it's probably not the right answer. Cheers, Bruce. --==_Exmh_-223783362P Content-Type: application/pgp-signature -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGPfreeware 5.0i for non-commercial use MessageID: CtL4zpNYF0TIls6IFVT4P+0CocAodnSn iQA/AwUBN/5rVtjKMXFboFLDEQJwmgCgrJVuMQefW4TOLAwSpw4i8C+hgPcAoJtu SkFEOSlntl3m2TnnB0+PxBE8 =Pvbt -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --==_Exmh_-223783362P-- To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-ports" in the body of the message
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