osabi and x11-links: for NetBSD only, or other (quasi-)Unixes also?

["Thomas Mueller" <mueller6724%bellsouth.net@localhost>]

> It is a general pkgsrc facility, not specific to NetBSD.  On a Mac with
> 10.6.5:

> osabi-Darwin-10.5.0 Operating System version dummy-package
> x11-links-0.61      Shadow tree of links to native X11 headers and libraries

> The point of osabi is to capture the previously implicit dependency of
> packages on the operating system ABI.  If you update the OS, then in
> general some packages may break.

> The point of x11-links is to provide a way to put shared library links
> in the buildlink tree, and to represent the native X11 code as a
> package.

I wonder how other OSes and other package managers, or lack of package manager, 
get along without osabi.

If I try pkgsrc in Linux, then I run into osabi difficulties if I choose 
between several kernels?

It could also be a nuisance to one who tracks NetBSD-current.

But I am not sufficiently satisfied with NetBSD 5.99.44 to want to build any 
packages, at least until I can go into X and exit back to a visible text-mode 
console, which I can not do in either NetBSD 5.1 release or stable, or 5.99.44..

Tom