Date: Tue, 20 Oct 2009 17:16:36 -0400 From: Robert Huff <roberthuff@rcn.com> To: Roland Smith <rsmith@xs4all.nl> Cc: Noah <noah-list@enabled.com>, User Questions <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: how to build from ports without downloading ports Message-ID: <19166.10420.838315.357127@jerusalem.litteratus.org> In-Reply-To: <20091020205707.GA59474@slackbox.xs4all.nl> References: <4ADE1F2A.6020601@enabled.com> <20091020205707.GA59474@slackbox.xs4all.nl>
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Roland Smith writes: > But why go to all this trouble? Disk space is cheap these days, > why not add an extra disk? If you don't have space in the > chassis, consider using an external USB disk for /usr/ports. Sometimes ... because the machine hardware is not under your control. In the mid 90's, I worked on a major workstation upgrade for the customer support division of a large financial services firm: we were replacing 386/20s with Pentium 90s. Most of the old machines were still serviceable - even the ones that were half-filled with dust still ran - so we looked around for something to do with them other than the scrap heap. Off in a cranny in one of the machine rooms was a 286/<mumble>, whose job it was to dial out twice a day, retrieve a specific piece of data, and put it in an equally specific place on the file server. It had been running 24/7 for, well, since you could hook a 286 up to a network file server.. Surely, we thought, we could move things over and increase reliability, etc.. The word came down from two or threee levels up the food chain: "Absolutely not. Don't even shut it down to dust." Robert Huff
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