Re: Is it a must to keep kernel up-to-date for -current pkgsrc user?

[Matthias Rampke <matthias.rampke%googlemail.com@localhost>]

On Sat, Nov 19, 2011 at 18:28, Mayuresh <mayuresh%acm.org@localhost> wrote:
> My question originated from a warning on the page I cited. My
> interpretation of the cited page was, the packages may make use of system
> calls that only a certain version of the kernel may support.

That page only refers to the base system, not packages.

> So one needs
> to manage such dependency. This may or may not be managed by pkgsrc. May
> be it is advised totally outside the system, through list of
> pre-requisites etc.

In general, pkgsrc is not too concerned about the system version it is
run on. Packages themselves (resp. the software they install) DO adapt
to the system it is being built on (e.g. through configure scripts
and/or data structures taken from system headers). It is usually
possible to run older software on newer kernels, as long as they
include the respective COMPAT_* option(s). Since most
packages/software do not use system calls directly but go through
libraries (libc in the simplest case) this also concerns the userland.

Note that this ONLY concerns what system the package was built on, NOT
the pkgsrc version. It is perfectly valid to e.g. use pkgsrc-current
on NetBSD 5 to build and install some software, then upgrade to NetBSD
6 and beyond and keep using the same package without rebuilding. This
is not guaranteed to work, but it usually does. It is NOT possible to
e.g. use pkgsrc-2010Q1 (or any other quarterly branch, or -current) to
build on NetBSD 6 and then use the package on NetBSD 5.

To wrap it up, as long as (date of kernel build) >= (date of userland
build) >= (date of package build)* you should be fine.

--m.


* >= means "newer or equal"