Re: Why Are You NOT Using FreeBSD?

...
> In any case, suppose a customer comes and asks for an application that
> uses PNG, you just updated your ports tree and then you either:
>
> 1. Have already libpng installed.
> Then you just don't rebuild libpng, just install the new software. You
> do this by going to the ports directory like
> /usr/ports/cathegory/greatstuff and type "make install". This will use
> the existing libpng on your system. No trouble.

... except the name of the libpng shared library changed, so the
builds of many ports will fail because they'll look for libpng15
instead of libpng.  Problem.  You could use local modifications to
your tree, or symlinks and libmap.conf(5) settings, to work around
this in many cases, but it would be a nuisance. Also, some other ports
may have been patched to work with the new shared library.  In this
case, it won't make much difference, but, speaking more generally
about updates of this kind, there may be problems.

>
> 2. Don't have libpng installed yet.
> You install the new port any way you like. Since you have no libpng on
> your system, you have no dependencies to upgrade (and wait). You will
> end up with the new libpng on your system. No trouble.
>

... except that it usually takes a few days for some of the bugs to be
found and fixed, and the dust to settle, even for major updates that
have undergone routine testing.  So if you have a tight deadline,
there could be a problem, because some of your builds may fail due to
unexpected interactions with other software, non-default settings,
etc.  Or some updated software may work differently or improperly.

> Applying some common sense to these situations helps great deal. It also
> helps to avoid any prejudice towards FreeBSD or whatever OS you end up
> using in the process.

Yes.  The sensible thing to do is to check to see that you're not updating your
ports tree immediately after major changes have been made, if you're concerned
about stability, and you don't have much time to fix things. If you have
updated your tree, back-up your installed packages before attempting
to update them
(pkg_create -b, pkgng backup, etc.).  If you then find that the new version
of the tree is unsuitable, you can revert to an earlier snapshot using
cvs/csup and release/date tags, roll back to your old packages, and proceed.

These issues are not peculiar to FreeBSD, and we expect to see
continued improvement in both Ports and the use of packages.

b.