On Mon, Feb 14, 2022 at 10:51:34AM +0100, bug.ig...@aleeas.com wrote:
> As a new OpenBSD user I found some issues with pkg_add and pkg_delete
> compared to other package managers I tried. I tried apt, pacman, xbps,
> dnf, pkg (freebsd). There are probably other users with far more
> experience than mine, but as a new user, just summarizing the issues I
> noticed:
>
> 1. Says "extracting" even when it's downloading and not really
> extracting [{packagename}-{version} (extracting)]
It is extracting, then moving into place... admittedly, with @tags we could
go faster.
> 2. Doesn't show how much space it's going to need to install or going
> to save if removed. Critical if space is limited.
It does check there's enough space before proceeding with individual installs.
You got lots of ways to figure out how much space it's going to need.
> 3. Doesn't show how many or which deps are going to be installed or
> going to be removed beforehand. Have to go through the entire process
> before all deps are installed or removed.
Again, that's a conscious decision and a different compromise than other
platforms. There is no cache that can get out of sync, or takes extra
disk space.
You were saying space might be limited.
> 4. Downloads each dep, installs, then downloads next dep.... All the
> package managers I tried, I didn't see any other do this. Having
> network issues or errors midway leaves deps around. (I had a "Can't
> install tkabber-1.1.2p3: can't resolve tcltls-1.6p4" with a failed
> install and deps still hanging around.) Probably would be a good idea
> to download them first and then install? It will probably make the
> process faster too?
No, it won't make the process faster. You had the bad luck to come at a
point midway in the mirror synchronisation.
If the left around dependencies annoy you, pkg_delete -a will remove anything
that was not installed purposely and that nothing depends on.
> 5. Slow installs and updates compared to other package managers. For
> example, if there are no system updates, other package managers are
> usually done within seconds. pkg_add -u looks into every package one by
> one and takes very long time, even if there are no updates.
We know about the issue, and there are lots of reasons it is that way, and
there are ways to address it eventually that are currently in development.
