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

[Benny Siegert <bsiegert%gmail.com@localhost>]

Hi!

On Sun, Feb 13, 2011 at 14:58, Thomas Mueller 
<mueller6724%bellsouth.net@localhost> wrote:

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

There is a distinction between things that have been installed by
pkgsrc and things not installed by it, which are considered as
belonging to the operating system, or "built in". See the section on
builtin.mk files in the pkgsrc guide.

> 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 . ÂIn most cases these 
> would be in the base system in the BSDs.

Consider everything outside your pkgsrc PREFIX (in this case /usr/pkg,
I think) as belonging to some sort of "base system".

> 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 .

This does not matter, as the two don't mix.

> 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. ÂI 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 ? ÂThis 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.

I think that you are confusing a few things here. First of all, you
cannot (generally speaking) mix Slackware and pkgsrc packages under
the same PREFIX. The question is not whether you can "upgrade" a
Slackware package with a pkgsrc one or vice versa. The pkgsrc
installation prefix, the package database and the contents of the
packages are self-contained, with the exception of basic libraries
such as libc and the builtin.mk stuff. pkgsrc packages do not depend
on Slackware packages, and they are not the same thing.

Think of pkgsrc as a separate entity from your base system. Your best
bet would be to install a small Slackware system and take the rest
from pkgsrc. If you already installed, say, gtk+2 in Slackware, you
will have to install it again in pkgsrc to use packages depending on
it.

Did I make myself clear?

--Benny.