Re: installation prefix with pkgsrc including non-BSD: always /usr/pkg?

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

> Let's see - I founded pkgsrc, wrote the guide to it, made it a first
> class citizen with its own self-contained mk files.  I ported pkgsrc
> to Solaris in 1999, and to Mac OS X in 2001, then created the posix
> bootstrap for it.  I presented package views in 2002 at EuroBSDcon in
> Amsterdam, and generally looked after it from 1997 until 2005.  I also
> co-mentored the partially successful pkg_install rewrite project in
> 2006.  So I do know all about how things are placed where in pkgsrc,
> and what the design decisions are.  This is because I came up with the
> design.

> There are no restrictions about where things may be put.  The above
> package shows that, whilst you may not like it, it is possible to
> place files anywhere in the file system. Anything which tries to
> restrict where files can go must, therefore, be mere guidelines.

> Regards,
> Alistair

> PS.  Sometimes there are good reasons for putting files into different
> places in the hierarchy.  grub and lilo, for instance, on linux.
> Statically-linked shells on any platform where /usr may be on a
> different partition to /.  Now I recognise that these should be the
> exceptions rather than the rule, and, indeed, that is how they are in
> pkgsrc.  But telling me that I can't do that - thanks, but think
> again, please.

Thanks for the explanation, Alistair.  I guess you're the authoritative source 
of information.

Now I wonder how pkgsrc finds dependencies installed to a prefix other than 
/usr/pkg.

In my Slackware 13.0 Linux installation, the prefix is /usr, but I've built and 
installed some packages to prefix /usr/local.

More vital packages put files in /bin, /sbin, /lib .  In most cases these would 
be in the base system in the BSDs.

Slackware package database is in /var/log/packages and not the same format as 
used by NetBSD pkgsrc or FreeBSD ports in /var/db/pkg .

I think that if I try to upgrade lilo from source, I do better to build without 
package manager, though I could use Slackware makepkg to produce a package that 
would be recognized by Slackware.  I don't see any advantage in using pkgsrc, 
only unnecessary complications.

There is the question, if I bootstrap pkgsrc in Slackware, would it 
subsequently recognize dependencies in prefix /usr/pkg ?  This is a question 
not merely about pkgsrc but about possible bugs in Slackware's implementation 
of gcc, and you probably can't answer this latter question.
 
Tom