Re: RFC: nih - package manager for pkgsrc

[Jean-Yves Migeon <jeanyves.migeon%free.fr@localhost>]

On 31.12.2010 10:27, Aleksey Cheusov wrote:
>>> So, this is a request for comments, feedback, suggestions and so on.
>>
>> Is it based on specific make targets of pkgsrc (like replace, update,
>> ...), therefore, needs pkgsrc to be untarred, or is it standalone?
> 
> As nih is packaged under wip/ category, you'll need pkgsrc tree for
> installing it. Then nih will use pkg_summary(5) and binary packages
> only. pkgsrc source tree will not be needed.

Out of interest, would it be possible to have nih (and its dependencies)
package somewhere, for pkg_add'ing, so that we don't necessarily end up
requiring a pkgsrc + wip fetch just to build it?

>> Is it purely for NetBSD, or should work with all supported OS?
> Of course it is portable. I successfully used it on NetBSD and Linux.

Good to know :)

>> What do you mean by "source based update capabilities"? You have to
>> fetch and bootstrap pkgsrc all over, then run for a "make package" +
>> install?
> Well, I meant that nih will be alternative for pkg_rolling-replace,
> pkg_comp, pkg_chk and 'make replace' :-)
> Plan a) build updated packages safely in chroots like distbb/pkg_comp do
> and then install/update them.
> Plan b) pkg_rr doesn't resolve some kind of problems automatically.
> Thus it fails (I don't mean "make build" failures) in the middle of update 
> and causes user to resolve problems manually. nih is able
> to resolve such problems without interaction with user.

I am no pkgsrc expert, but plan a) looks safer to me; although this may
not be as easy as it seems: building the chroot varies from OS to OS, so
supporting the feature "automagically" can be heavyweight.

>> Last but not least, how is nih supposed to cope with custom pkgsrc
>> installs, like X11_TYPE native vs modular?
> This is exactly how I use nih on my NetBSD ;-)
> I have prebuilt packages with custom build options and pkg_summary.txt
> generated by distbb. Nih works just perfectly.
> From time to time I run "distbb -i" for rebuilding all
> installed packages
> or "distbb -p category/package" to build the specified
> package safely. On my Linuxes I run full bulk builds periodically.

Now that seems interesting -- more icing on the cake.

>> Suppose I have installed a
>> myriad of packages with specific options, and then
>> use nih for a binary
>> update -- will it bluntly replace
>> the binaries, or yell for an error in
>> case of breakage for dependencies?
> Nih needs pkg_summary(5). So, you need either distbb of pbulk
> or any other tool that generates it
> for building your packages. I use distbb.

Alright

>> Anyway: it is appreciable that some people are working
>> on making pkgsrc
> You can just try it ;-)

2010Q4 will be born soon, so I will give it a go :)

-- 
Jean-Yves Migeon
jeanyves.migeon%free.fr@localhost