Michael P. Soulier wrote: > After running CVSup, I've seen people build their "index" via > > cd /usr/ports > make index > # wait a frickin' long time > > What is the index, and does it really require rebuilding after each CVSup?
The index is a list of all of the ports, what each port depends on, who
the maintainer is and various other data. It's used by the 'make search'
command (see ports(7)) an a few other make targets you can invoke from
/usr/ports, plus it's used quite extensively by portupgrade(8). Other
port maintenance software does not need an index file -- generally they
work out the dependency relations between different packages on the fly.
You don't need to keep running 'make index' all the time. Firstly, you
can download a freshly build index by 'make fetchindex' -- which is
sufficient for most uses. If you use the new portsnap(1) facility
instead of cvsup(1), you'll get a freshly built index file included
automatically. Or (blowing my own trumpet here...) you can install
sysutils/p5-FreeBSD-Portindex which gives you a method of incrementally
updating your index file based on what was modified during the previous
cvsup session (or however you choose to upgrade your ports).
Cheers,
Matthew
--
Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil. Flat 3
7 Priory Courtyard
PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey Ramsgate
Kent, CT11 9PW, UK
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