Re: ports and PBIs

From: Sam Fourman Jr. <sfourman_at_gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 10 Apr 2010 01:28:27 -0500
On Fri, Apr 9, 2010 at 10:11 PM, Adam Vande More <amvandemore_at_gmail.com> wrote:
> On Fri, Apr 9, 2010 at 8:31 PM, Julian Elischer <julian_at_elischer.org> wrote:
>
>>
>> Alfred Perlstein , Matt at ix systems Kris (Mr PBI), some
>> others and I, felt that these ideas seemed to make some sense
>> and so I put them here for comment.
>>
>>
> FWIW, when I see these discussions I'm always left wondering what's the bad
> part?  I do think there are problems, but there doesn't seem to be a clear
> defined set of what is wrong.   IMO, there should be a defined set of goals
> to judge possible implementations against.


Let me start by saying FreeBSD ports is by far the best system I have
used to date.
but as good as it is, there is room for improvement.

Being a FreeBSD user now for many years, one thing I think would be nice is:
being able to have easier access to development ports( Masked ports
kinda like Gentoo).

right now is a GREAT example, currently there are new Gnome ,KDE and Xorg.
these are all MAJOR ports,dependencies run deeper and deeper with every release.
there can never be enough testing...but they all exist in random
subversion servers around the web...

I would very much like to help test these Major ports, but installing
them is a pain.
there should be some sort of overlay system in place, so I can just
build the development ports
after agreeing to a few well placed warnings of course. and Well if I
hose my system all to hell..
well then I could just click on a bunch of PBI's and I am back in business...

better still, make the development ports a PBI, I am just thinking out
loud here,but that may work, toughts?

one could say I could use merge scripts like marcusmerge for example,
or use Virtualbox...
but for large ports like Xorg and gnome or KDE, virtualbox doesn't cut it yet...
thinks like Nvidia Video cards, multiple monitors, USB devices, and
whatnot do not work on virtual box..
PBI's for development ports, with all the dependencies, wrapped in one package.


solution? well let all the developers develop working ports in
progress in one place, give users like me a way to track these changes
and install and test them... I think FreeBSD becomes a better place for it.


Sam Fourman Jr.
Fourman Networks
Received on Sat Apr 10 2010 - 04:28:28 UTC

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