Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2012 00:03:42 +0200 From: Polytropon <freebsd@edvax.de> To: Jamie Paul Griffin <jamie@kode5.net> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: freebsd-texlive port Message-ID: <20121011000342.bb5dc60e.freebsd@edvax.de> In-Reply-To: <20121010203243.GA705@kontrol.kode5.net> References: <20121010015528.GA29059@shellx.eskimo.com> <CAJ5UdcNPFnpZki64cBPhL-E77MX4bR1irP_%2B-%2BBiiz4NYzpjjA@mail.gmail.com> <20121010130144.GA12086@osx.kode5.net> <20121010174925.bf530323.freebsd@edvax.de> <20121010160144.GA13359@kontrol.kode5.net> <CAO6-GAc8wQN%2BjNO1sy9Z-NUzC=hxD_oo8mp5HyGD2cPi4pKKyg@mail.gmail.com> <20121010203243.GA705@kontrol.kode5.net>
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On Wed, 10 Oct 2012 21:32:43 +0100, Jamie Paul Griffin wrote: > I imagine it would be a lot of work to integrate it into the ports > system not to mention it would take an age to compile it. > > There has been a lot of work done by developers to provide > binaries for FreeBSD with the main texlive distribution so it's not > necessary to integrate into the ports system. What would be nice is if > certain ports that require a tex distribution can be used with the > texlive distribution that available from tug.org already. > > Projects like Macports have been able to do this, if this became > possible for FreeBSD ports then it would be great. While I see clear advantages in TeXlive being a "self-integrated distribution of software", it doesn't really fit the idea of the ports collection, which is a means to _centrally_ compile, install (or fetch from precompiled packages from a trusted source), patch, update or remove software by using system tools (the pkg_* commands) or additional utilities (like portmaster, portupgrade etc.). Having all the software bring their own distribution system, web-based obtaining and their own "micro-updating" mechanism (inside the software itself) looks a bit outdated. Allow me to share my inspiration: What I primarily like about the ports infrastructure is the fact that it combines several tasks done to (or with) software by a standardized interface, not distributing those tasks across the software itself. I can use pkg_add, portmaster, "make install", even all of them, and I don't even have to launch a web browser to search for or manually download software. I also do not have to deal with "micro-management" systems which is different from port to port. All ports "talk the same language", e. g. "make deinstall" does deinstall the port, no matter _which_ port I choose. I would really like to see TeXlive being available maybe as a precompiled package (for use with pkg_add) so it can easily be installed without actually fetching it from a "non-system" source. Dependencies requesting a TeX package should honor either _which_ TeX is already installed (teTeX or TeXlive) or look at a configuration setting, for example WITH_TEX= in /etc/make.conf, as I suggested. That could deliver a relatively easy integration. Not relying on 3rd party sources is a great advantage. If you use Java, you know what I'm refering to. Go to the web and download it to distfiles/, then resume the build... :-) For building TeXlive: Some people intendedly _want_ to build the stuff they use from source. Others are fine if "make install" fetches some binaries somewhere and installs them (for example this is what "make install" means for the Opera web browser in the first place). Such a "binary distribution" would be easy to implement, even though it might be quite huge (but that could be changed by stripping all non-FreeBSD parts from TeXlive). Still I see the "problem" of TeXlive's own package management system. Integrating _that_ with subports (or havving TeXlive as a metaport) doesn't look easy. As I don't need any feature of TeXlive, I'm _currently_ still using teTeX because it does everything I need. But I agree that TeXlive will be regarded _the_ TeX distribution in the future, leaving teTeX in the past... -- Polytropon Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...
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