Re: apt-get

[Jon Noack <noackjr@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 05/31/04 15:34, Bill Huey (hui) wrote:
> 2) Building something like KDE/GNOME is nearly impossible to do, let
> alone the wait for it to finish building. I have had build literally
> take days to finish and people pushing "ports" style system can't ignore
> that. The world isn't fixed and it's highly desirable to run even the
> latest stuff off of the CVS from those projects. I use to do it all of
> the time and without problems under Debian.

I disagree with your "nearly impossible" comment.  I've been using KDE 
from FreeBSD ports since version 2.1.x.  Sure, it takes a while to 
compile, but I would just start the upgrade (CVSup ports tree, 
'portupgrade -ar') before leaving work or going to sleep.  I can't 
recall a time when it wasn't successfully completed by the next morning. 
 When I didn't want to wait, I simply used the packages from the 
KDE/FreeBSD team (http://rabarber.fruitsalad.org/).  I recognize that 
having packages available is the exception rather than the rule.

My completely ignorant opinion is that FreeBSD should integrate the 
bento build cluster (http://pointyhat.freebsd.org/) with the ports 
system.  The ports system would default to using the package if 
available, but there would still be an option to always compile from 
source.  If the package wasn't available yet, then the port would be 
compiled from source as before.  The packages are already being built 
(http://pointyhat.freebsd.org/errorlogs/i386-packages-5-latest/)!  All 
that is needed is to set the default PACKAGESITE to the above URL, make 
packages the default, and ensure there is enough bandwidth to handle the 
load.  I know this requires further considerations for security and what 
not, but handling the load is the only technical difficulty I see...

Jon