Re: ANN: Availability of pkg(8)-capable pkgsrc

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

from John Marino:

> pkgn2ng was a terrible idea.
> Why would anyone spend the effort to convert from one package format to
> another when they can just rebuild the software?
        
> It is a serious amount of effort to build such a converter when the
> impact of not having it is very small.
        
Upgrading many packages from pkgsrc or FreeBSD ports is very time-consuming and subject to errors.

It seemed pkg2ng was preferable.

> > So now with pkg(8)-capable pkgsrc in its infancy, there would be a
> > transitional phase where pkg_rolling-replace wouldn't work, and Synth
> > wouldn't be ready.
 
> One can generate repositories with pkg(8) directly. All it's doing is scanning
> the packages in one directory to get the relationships so that pkg install
> command works better.  There's also a "pkg add" command.

I still don't see how one could upgrade many packages en masse.

There would need to be more documentation.

> > So how would packages in NetBSD be updated with portmaster and
> > portupgrade not available?

> Both of those are curse words.

I came from Linux Slackware, where the package manager has no regard for dependencies.

NetBSD pkgsrc and FreeBSD with portmaster, portupgrade and the old pkg_* tools was heaven by comparison.

I became spoiled and discontinued my subscription to Slackware following v13.0.

> > I could use git from an already existing installation of FreeBSD or
> > NetBSD.

> you would use a pre-built package from NetBSD.  Or build it with the old
> system and not remove it.

Assuming the new pkg builds successfully, the instructions in the README seem easy enough to follow.

But there needs to be documentation on how to update packages from source.  Even the new pkg will have bugs, and there figure to be improvements and updates.

Tom