Date: Mon, 23 Mar 1998 17:35:09 +1100 (EST) From: "Daniel O'Callaghan" <danny@panda.hilink.com.au> To: Derek Flowers <djflow@portwwwbus.tc.cc.va.us> Cc: stable@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Binary package updates, etc. Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.3.91.980323172519.300J-100000@panda.hilink.com.au> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.3.96.980322185139.11563A-100000@portwwwbus.tc.cc.va.us>
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I think Derek is doing a great job! Congrats. However, I do also think that Cy Schubert made a very valid point that we need to identify what it is that is going to be updated using this package mechanism. If the pkg mechanism include feature enhancements to the system, then people may be reluctant to use it, lest they change somethin on which their system depends. Alex changed the size of the ipfw structure and created an incompatibility between ipfw(8) and ip_fw.[ch] last November/December. The result was that a kernel upgrade meant a userland upgrade for ipfw(8). This is likely to be a good reason many will shy away from enhancement packages. If the pkg mechanism is only for bug fixes, that's fine, until you need to produce a package for a bug fix in an enhancement. The only way to cater for both scenarios is to flag each package as either ENHANCEMENT or FIX, and make any FIX packages dependent on the ENHANCEMENT package. Of course, if there is a bug fix in (e.g.) ipfw which is unrelated to, but after, an enhancement, we need two packages. As you can see, this is starting to get yucky, and it is a good reason to sit down and work out exactly what it is we want to achieve with this upgrade mechanism. Does anyone else have any ideas? Danny /* Daniel O'Callaghan */ /* HiLink Internet <http://www.hilink.com.au/>; danny@hilink.com.au */ /* FreeBSD - works hard, plays hard... danny@freebsd.org */ To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-stable" in the body of the message
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