Date: Tue, 21 Oct 2003 06:40:03 -0700 (PDT) From: Dinesh Nadarajah <dinesh_list@sbcglobal.net> To: Matthew Seaman <m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Where is the config file? Message-ID: <20031021134003.25008.qmail@web80403.mail.yahoo.com> In-Reply-To: <20031021132631.GA94995@happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk>
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The reason I am asking all these questions is that I am exploring the possibility of of writing an apt-get like application for FreeBSD (call it apt-pkg). Apt-get was written to help out dpkg in Debian. pkg_add has a lot more features than dpkg but not the update/upgrade features of apt-get. So pkg_add simply requires an 'aide' applcation that simply provides pkg_add information on what to install - kind of a gentler user interface for pkg_add. anyone aware of such a project. Do not want to reinvent the wheel here. But having used debian for some time, I have come to appreciate the appeal this has for ne users and users who simply want to install binaries. Thanks for the rseponses. -D PS: I am thinking of writing it in Python. Good/Bad???? --- Matthew Seaman <m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk> wrote: > On Tue, Oct 21, 2003 at 05:27:42AM -0700, Dinesh Nadarajah wrote: > > I would like to know where pkg_add keeps its configuration file? I > mean > > when I execute the command 'pkg_add -r bzip2' how does it know that > it > > needs to fetch it from > ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/...../packages-4-stable/ > > as opposed to packages-4-current? > > pkg_add works out the path it looks for on the FTP servers from the > system version number -- there isn't a specific configuration file > for > it. You can override the defaults by setting various environment > variables: PACKAGEROOT, PACKAGESITE as described in the pkg_add(1) > man > page. > > If you're interested in exactly how pkg_add works out what URL to > use, > look at the definition of the 'releases' array near the top of > /usr/src/usr.sbin/pkg_install/add/main.c Hmmm... I do believe I can > see what might be a bijou little buglette there. Seems that there's > no mention of packages-4.8-release or the impending > packages-4.9-release. (Checks cvsweb...) Hmmm... Looks like only > RELENG_4_8 branch gets an indication of where the 4.8-RELEASE > packages > are. Makes a certain kind of sense. > > > Also, along the same note, I searched through the handbook but > could > > not find any information on how to convert a 4-STABLE to a > 4-CURRENT. I > > want to only use CURRENT software not update my kernel to CURRENT. > Is > > this possible? > > Firstly, there's no such thing as 4-CURRENT and there hasn't been for > several years. Your choices at the moment (other than one of the > -RELEASE branches) are 4-STABLE or 5-CURRENT. Similarly, there is no > 5-STABLE just yet: the omens are that it may appear alongside 5.3 > release. This is documented in > > > http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/cvs-tags.html > > and > > > http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/5-roadmap/index.html > > Using 5-CURRENT is not recommended unless you are of FreeBSD > developer > calibre, as it is the bleeding edge and you will need quite a lot of > code-fu to be able to deal with the fine messes it can get you into. > You seem to be on 4-STABLE already -- unless you have a pressing > reason, like you have hardware only supported in 5.x or insatiable > curiosity, then I'd stick with that. If you must run a 5.x version > go > with 5.1-RELEASE which is the best and most recent 5.x code right > now. > > As for upgrading from 4.x-STABLE to 5.x-RELEASE: this can be done by > compiling the 5.x sources under 4.x, but it is by no means a trivial > task, and there are various new features (like UFS2 filesystems) that > you won't be able to take advantage of without extreme pain. Take a > look at the instructions in /usr/src/UPDATING (see > http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/cvsweb.cgi/src/UPDATING?rev=1.251.2.12&content-type=text/x-cvsweb-markup&only_with_tag=RELENG_5_1 > for details from the UPDATING file for 5.1-RELEASE -- the bit you > want > is pretty much right at the end of the file) On the whole, you may > find it more productive to cut yourself some 5.1 Installation media, > wipe your present system and do a fresh install. > > > If pkg_add -r is provided a URL to a CURRENT directory, would it > fetch > > all dependencies from the same directory or would it revert to its > > configured URL to fetch the dependencies? > > From reading the source code, I believe that the first option will be > the case, unless you set PKG_ADD_BASE in the environment. But I > could > be wrong. Trying a combination of the '-n' and -v' flags to pkg_add > should let you confirm your suppositions without screwing up your > system. > > Cheers, > > Matthew > > -- > Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil. 26 The Paddocks > Savill Way > PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey Marlow > Tel: +44 1628 476614 Bucks., SL7 1TH > UK > > ATTACHMENT part 2 application/pgp-signature
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