Re: pkgtools/pkg status in NetBSD with pkgsrc, does anybody use it?

[Alistair Crooks <agc%pkgsrc.org@localhost>]

On 6 June 2017 at 20:48, Thomas Mueller <mueller6725%twc.com@localhost> wrote:
>> > pkg, the main feature of pkgng in FreeBSD, replaced the traditional
>> > pkg_* tools that were about the same as what is still in use in
>> > NetBSD with pkgsrc.
>
>> No, the pkgsrc pkg_install tools have diverged considerably from the
>> FreeBSD ones.  It underwent almost an entire rewrite a few years ago.
>
> But then as I pointed out, FreeBSD pkgng diverged considerably and is not compatible with old pkg_* tools.
>
> In the era of old pkg_* tools, format of /var/db/pkg looked about the same between FreeBSD and NetBSD/pkgsrc.

Not really - FreeBSD's older tools had no support for build
information and for build versions - 2 extra files that were kept in
there. Within the +CONTENTS itself, (what PLIST feeds into), things
were different - directives and keywords, deprecation of same, etc.
The pkgsrc pkg_install tools had undergone a rewrite, And comparing
the functionality of 2 different systems, 1 of which had evolved, and
one which had stayed mostly static, by saying that some of the files
had the same names would be stretching things a bit.

> I already git-cloned pkgsrc-synth repository.  From what John Marino said, I could see that using synth would burn bridges on pkgsrc pkg_* tools.

Curious - what does this mean? Good, bad, different format,
compatible/incompatible, better performing? Not trying to score
points, just understand - you obviously have some knowledge of this,
so can you share it, please?

Thanks,
Alistair