Re: pkg/28510

["Johnny C. Lam" <jlam%NetBSD.org@localhost>]

The following reply was made to PR pkg/28510; it has been noted by GNATS.

From: "Johnny C. Lam" <jlam%NetBSD.org@localhost>
To: Robert Elz <kre%munnari.OZ.AU@localhost>
Cc: "Julio M. Merino Vidal" <jmmv84%gmail.com@localhost>,
        gnats-bugs%NetBSD.org@localhost, pkgsrc-bugs%NetBSD.org@localhost
Subject: Re: pkg/28510
Date: Wed, 8 Jun 2005 21:48:02 +0000

 On Tue, Mar 29, 2005 at 01:45:42PM +0700, Robert Elz wrote:
 >     Date:        Tue, 29 Mar 2005 11:10:07 +0700
 >     From:        Robert Elz <kre%munnari.oz.au@localhost>
 >     Message-ID:  <733.1112069407%munnari.OZ.AU@localhost>
 > 
 > This...
 > 
 >   | If you want to implement a solution like that for X app-defaults files,
 >   | go for it - but the way to be like this would be to add something new
 >   | in /etc/X11/XF86Config (and then work out how to get something similar
 >   | for those other X servers that don't have a config file).
 > 
 > was, of course, nonsense, as it is the applications, not the server, that
 > need the app-defaults files.   But a config file in some well known place
 > (probably in /etc/X11, since it exists) that could set system-wide 
 > application
 > defaults would be a (non-trivial) reasonable solution.
 
 This problem has been around for about a year, and there have been
 several solutions presented in the addendum to pkg/28510, but they
 are all unsatisfactory in some way: union mounts are NetBSD-specific,
 modifying the X11 sources is non-trivial or not even possible for some
 platforms, telling users to set XUSERFILESEARCHPATH is hit-and-miss,
 and telling admins to build their packages with USE_XPKGWEDGE=no writes
 new files into /usr/X11R6 all over the place.
 
 Rather than dealing with purely "read-only" /usr/X11R6 and trying to
 make pkgsrc work with this setup, which seems to take quite a lot of
 work, I propose an alternative solution: just symlink the app-defaults
 files from /usr/pkg to /usr/X11R6.  If that's not allowed on your
 system, then "too bad" -- you're stuck with needing to do some sort
 of union-mount or with telling your users to set XUSERFILESEARCHPATH.
 You're also not forced to use this solution, as it's used only if the
 helper package that manages the symlinks is installed on the system.
 
 This proposal involves creating a helper package, i.e.
 pkgtools/x11-pkg-manager, that would manage the symlinks of the
 app-defaults files between /usr/pkg and /usr/X11R6 in some smart way.
 In addition, we also add an install script fragment that will invoke
 the helper script (if it exists) at both POST-INSTALL and DEINSTALL
 time.
 
 This proposal does have the drawback of not working with pkgviews
 since only one version of a package can have symlinks in /usr/X11R6.
 However, it provides a simply and yet completely optional way for
 people not using pkgviews to manage their X11 packages without resorting
 to telling their users to properly set XUSERFILESEARCHPATH or using
 union mounts.
 
 Comments?
 
        Cheers,
 
        -- Johnny Lam <jlam%NetBSD.org@localhost>