Re: Stale pieces in the base system? (was: hardcoded -C argument to ${INSTALL})

From: The Anarcat <anarcat_at_anarcat.ath.cx>
Date: Tue, 6 May 2003 23:12:24 -0400
On Tue May 06, 2003 at 11:07:14PM -0400, Garance A Drosihn wrote:
> At 9:56 PM -0400 5/6/03, The Anarcat wrote:
> >I too had an obscene idea like this, but it was much more
> >perverse and powerful: Why don't we make that install
> >program record the files in a package? install(1) (or
> >pkg_install progs) would then know which files would be
> >where. By bumping a serial or version number somewhere,
> >you could check which files have been changed/added/removed
> >quite easily.
> 
> My fear is that any attempt to do the "perverse and powerful"
> solution will open too many cans of worms, and will never
> actually get done.  There have been many "obvious" solutions
> posted to solve the problem of stale files, including some
> grand claims that I have made from time-to-time, but the
> problem turns a bit tricky when one tries to actually
> implement something that will work for all freebsd users.

You are right. The problem is that the distribution and registering of
the FreeBSD bits is not done correctly and has never been done
correctly. This is not a simple problem to solve.

> I wanted a solution that I thought I could implement in a week,
> assuming I ever actually had a week where I was free to work
> on just freebsd.  I think I could do my simple proposal in less
> than a week. 

I'd welcome your solution anytime, but it's quite a hack. :)

> Now, if this simple solution did exist, I am sure that others could
> take it and greatly improve it.

You'd be surprised how people are reticent to touch those bits.

> But we first have to get to *something* that actually helps the
> situation, because we really do re-visit this same topic about
> once-a-month.

Indeed.

A.
-- 
Conformity-the natural instinct to passively yield to that vague something
recognized as authority.
                        - Mark Twain

Received on Tue May 06 2003 - 18:12:04 UTC

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Wed May 19 2021 - 11:37:06 UTC