> > Side note: Though instances are a weird construct > whose purpose I > > never quite understood, my impression is that > making any connection > > between MAXINST=1 and upgrading/upgradability is > semantically wrong. > > I too agree wholeheartedly. I've never quite > understood pkg instances, > and I have a very hard time believing that there are > many packages that > actually handle that properly. For one they have to > be relocatable, > which means not only that the prototype and pkginfo > files have to be > setup properly, but that the programs/scripts > installed that make > references to other parts of the pkg have to be aware > of relocation, or > at the very least linked with -R \$ORIGIN/../lib and > the scripts have to > do equivalent things.
Instances work ok if installing both Studio 10 and Studio 11. As long as Studio releases are free (as in beer), or for those who could afford them, being able to keep the old one around while also having access to the new one, is probably important, as it means access to new features etc while keeping the old one around as insurance. Clearly there are packages for which that wouldn't make sense; but just as clearly, there are those for which it's quite useful. This message posted from opensolaris.org
