Re: The pkgsrc-2006Q1 branch

[Anne Bennett <anne%porcupine.montreal.qc.ca@localhost>]

Alistair Crooks announces:

> The pkgsrc developers are very proud to announce the new pkgsrc-2006Q1

I add my congratulations to those already expressed.  The NetBSD
package system is terrific: I find that it marries ease-of-use (for
when I don't want to know the details of a package I am installing)
with flexibility (for those times I do need to hack on something).

I do have questions, though:

> At the same time, the pkgsrc-2005Q4 branch has been deprecated, and
> continuing engineering starts on the pkgsrc-2006Q1 branch.
[...]
> + continuing engineering on the "stable" branches of pkgsrc has been
> much improved, and our thanks to the pkgsrc releng team for all the
> hard work they do in sanity checking pullup requests, and managing
> the stable branches in pkgsrc

I have installed about 300 packages from source, based on 2005Q4
(and occasional updates to 2005Q4 since last December).  What does
it mean to me in practice that 2005Q4 has been deprecated?  Is it
expected that I would re-install all of my software every few
months? If not, how long will security patches continue to be made
on 2005Q4?  If I want an update to a particular package as found
in a more recent pkgsrc branch, is there a way that this update
can coexist peacefully with the rest of my installed software,
short of giving it a whole separate directory hierarchy?


Anne.
-- 
Ms. Anne Bennett, as a private citizen:  anne%porcupine.montreal.qc.ca@localhost
Also reachable more officially at work:  anne%encs.concordia.ca@localhost