Re: what does you think of fink?

[esmith <esmith@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Rahul Siddharthan wrote:
> Geiregat Jonas wrote:
>
> > > Is there any other presently available pakaging system that is easier
> > > and more reliable to use than fink?
> > >
> > > http://fink.sourceforge.net/
> >
> > What about using netbsd's pkgsrc , it's extremly portable ...
>
>
> How is it better than FreeBSD's ports system?  It looks the same to me
> and it was originally a port of FreeBSD's ports, they renamed it
> "pkgsrc" because they use "ports" to refer to the different
> architectures they run on.
>
> Rahul

The NetBSD pkgsrc system does deserve examination because they have 
attempted to solve the "multiple version problem". This PDF document, at 
the url below, explains the pkgviews aspect of pkgsrc:

http://www.netbsd.org/Documentation/software/pkgviews.pdf

excerpt from pkgviews.pdf:
'One of the main problems faced by users of the various systems is the 
means by which multiple versions of a package, or packages which 
"conflict" with each other, can co-exist at the same time.
	To address that, a new system is proposed to allow any number of 
different versions of packages to co-exist at any  one time, and the 
importance of dynamic packing is discussed.'
end of excerpt

IMHO, pkgsrc looks pretty good. Simply re-using the pkgsrc system would, 
save a lot of time and work and give DF something to use right now ( I'm 
getting tired of fixing FreeBSD ports ).

DF could probably even create a more memorable name than 'pkgsrc'.