Regarding packages and ports, up to dateness
Recently, I have installed FreeBSD 5.4, first I would like to thank all those who work on for such a stable, useable operating system. I have tried OpenBSD and NetBSD on many of my computers, which would not boot at all. FreeBSD is the only OS that will boot on many of the computers we have and hopefully FreeBSD will to work to make sure that hardware compatability is improved and maintained. However, there is room for improvement. One of the major issues I have is with the out of date binary packages available for the latest stable release (5.4). Yes, I know that there are much more up to data packages in Ports, I know many people just love spending hours of time compiling and recompiling ports over and over agian every time they want a new version of software X, but many of us have better ways to spend our time and computer resources. Many of us do not have fast enough computers to make this possible (it would take a week). Please, please, please offer up to date packages compiled from the latest version of its port for the latest stable release of FreeBSD. Perhaps you can set up a system to automatically rebuild a binary package from its port when that specific port as been upgraded to a new version and put it up on the FTP sites. This would only require a particular package to have to be rebuilt when its port has been updated to a new version. This would save a lot of people a lot of time. Please. Also, I have a question, if I binary upgrade FreeBSD, I can continue to use existing packages I have from the previous version, right? What if a package from a previous version and a package from a current version of FreeBSD require the same dynamically linked library (such as the same version of GTK). Do both packages share the same dynamically linked library, or do the binaries from older versions and newer versions each require a different build of the same library? Can dynamic libraries from previous versions of FreeBSD be loaded into programs compiled for the latest version of freebsd, and vice versa? If not, how does FreeBSD handle this mess? Thank you. __ Yahoo! Mail - PC Magazine Editors' Choice 2005 http://mail.yahoo.com ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: Regarding packages and ports, up to dateness
On 9/17/05, Milscvaer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > [...] > However, there is room for improvement. One of the > major issues I have is with the out of date binary > packages available for the latest stable release > (5.4). The packages distributed with the release are current at the time of the release. The package build system maintains up-to-date packages for most of the ports, so you can update to newer packages if you wish. > Yes, I know that there are much more up to data > packages in Ports, I know many people just love > spending hours of time compiling and recompiling ports > over and over agian every time they want a new version > of software X, but many of us have better ways to > spend our time and computer resources. Many of us do > not have fast enough computers to make this possible > (it would take a week). Please, please, please offer > up to date packages compiled from the latest version > of its port for the latest stable release of FreeBSD. Your terminology is confusing packages and ports. Packages are pre-compiled binaries, while ports are (usually but not always) source distributions that are compiled on your system. For most ports, you can install the corresponding package rather than the port if that's what you wish to do. There are several methods of doing so, the most basic method is to use the pkg_add command. See http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/ports.html for more details and for instructions. When you get to the page about installing a package (4.4.1) note the comment about the PACKAGESITE variable: if you install a FreeBSD RELEASE, then by default PACKAGESITE is set to install the packages that were built at the time of the RELEASE. If you want more recent packages, you either need to update your RELEASE version of FreeBSD to a corresponding (more recent) STABLE version, or you need to change the PACKAGESITE variable to fetch the STABLE packages rather than the RELEASE packages. It is done this way so that packages installed in a RELEASE will be reasonably sure to work properly. When you install newer packages into an older system, sometimes the older libraries on the system don't work correctly with the newer package (or other things don't work right). If you use a tool such as portupgrade to manage your packages, it can automatically update required libraries, etc. so this is usually not a problem. Portupgrade itself is in the ports system, and can itself be installed as a package if you wish. Another similar tool is portmanager. Also, "stable" and "release" should not be used together to describe a FreeBSD version. "STABLE" describes the latest version of the production FreeBSD system, and is updated pretty much continuously. A "RELEASE" is a snapshot of the "STABLE" version on a particular date. The RELEASE version gets extra testing and is distributed as a complete distribution on CDROMs, ISO images, etc. So the correct terminology is to call a version of FreeBSD either STABLE or RELEASE, but not both (it could also be CURRENT, which essentially means it is an experimental version). > Perhaps you can set up a system to automatically > rebuild a binary package from its port when that > specific port as been upgraded to a new version and > put it up on the FTP sites. This would only require a > particular package to have to be rebuilt when its port > has been updated to a new version. This would save a > lot of people a lot of time. Please. This is already done. At one time, new packages were built from the ports every day. I think that the number of ports has gotten so great that new packages are built every two days now, but that could be a misunderstanding on my part. > > Also, I have a question, if I binary upgrade FreeBSD, > I can continue to use existing packages I have from > the previous version, right? What if a package from a Usually. > previous version and a package from a current version > of FreeBSD require the same dynamically linked library > (such as the same version of GTK). Do both packages > share the same dynamically linked library, or do the > binaries from older versions and newer versions each > require a different build of the same library? Can They share the same library, if they both use the same version of the library. > dynamic libraries from previous versions of FreeBSD be > loaded into programs compiled for the latest version > of freebsd, and vice versa? If not, how does FreeBSD > handle this mess? FreeBSD attempts to keep track of the version of each library, so you can have more than one version of a library installed, and different programs can use different versions of the library. Hope that helps. - Bob ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: Regarding packages and ports, up to dateness
Thank you for your help answering these questions regarding these issues. Is it necessary to keep ports collection up to date in order to use portupgrade to get the latest packages? Also, what determiines where portupgrade will download packages from, and what whether it will download from STABLE or RELEASE, etc. I see nothing about this in its documentation. Can I just set sysinstall to use STABLE and download new packages from within sysinstall? As well when I try to run cvsup, it complains "Cannot get IP address of my own host -- is its hostname correct?". Of course I do not have a valid hostname, I am behind a firewall with a private IP. I dont know why it assumes everyone has a valid hostname. This makes cvsup quite diffcult to use for me. Also, incompatabilities between programs and libraries are a concern. Are programs always linked to specific version of a library, is there any concern that if I upgrade a program and it installs a new version of a library, another program which previously used an older version of the library will end up using the new version and causing some sort of incompatability (they would call this DLL-hell on Windows I believe). Thank you for your assistance on these matters. --- Bob Johnson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On 9/17/05, Milscvaer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > [...] > > However, there is room for improvement. One of the > > major issues I have is with the out of date binary > > packages available for the latest stable release > > (5.4). > > The packages distributed with the release are > current at the time of > the release. The package build system maintains > up-to-date packages > for most of the ports, so you can update to newer > packages if you > wish. > > > Yes, I know that there are much more up to data > > packages in Ports, I know many people just love > > spending hours of time compiling and recompiling > ports > > over and over agian every time they want a new > version > > of software X, but many of us have better ways to > > spend our time and computer resources. Many of us > do > > not have fast enough computers to make this > possible > > (it would take a week). Please, please, please > offer > > up to date packages compiled from the latest > version > > of its port for the latest stable release of > FreeBSD. > > Your terminology is confusing packages and ports. > Packages are > pre-compiled binaries, while ports are (usually but > not always) source > distributions that are compiled on your system. For > most ports, you > can install the corresponding package rather than > the port if that's > what you wish to do. There are several methods of > doing so, the most > basic method is to use the pkg_add command. See > http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/ports.html > for more details and for instructions. When you get > to the page about > installing a package (4.4.1) note the comment about > the PACKAGESITE > variable: if you install a FreeBSD RELEASE, then by > default > PACKAGESITE is set to install the packages that were > built at the time > of the RELEASE. If you want more recent packages, > you either need to > update your RELEASE version of FreeBSD to a > corresponding (more > recent) STABLE version, or you need to change the > PACKAGESITE variable > to fetch the STABLE packages rather than the RELEASE > packages. It is > done this way so that packages installed in a > RELEASE will be > reasonably sure to work properly. When you install > newer packages > into an older system, sometimes the older libraries > on the system > don't work correctly with the newer package (or > other things don't > work right). If you use a tool such as portupgrade > to manage your > packages, it can automatically update required > libraries, etc. so this > is usually not a problem. Portupgrade itself is in > the ports system, > and can itself be installed as a package if you > wish. Another similar > tool is portmanager. > > Also, "stable" and "release" should not be used > together to describe a > FreeBSD version. "STABLE" describes the latest > version of the > production FreeBSD system, and is updated pretty > much continuously. A > "RELEASE" is a snapshot of the "STABLE" version on a > particular date. > The RELEASE version gets extra testing and is > distributed as a > complete distribution on CDROMs, ISO images, etc. > So the correct > terminology is to call a version of FreeBSD either > STABLE or RELEASE, > but not both (it could also be CURRENT, which > essentially means it is > an experimental version). > > > Perhaps you can set up a system to automatically > > rebuild a binary package from its port when that > > specific port as been upgraded to a new version > and > > put it up on the FTP sites. This would only > require a > > particular package to have to be rebuilt when its > port > > has been updated to a new version. This would save > a > > lot of people a lot of time. Please. > > This is
