Re: Why Are You NOT Using FreeBSD?

On 6/5/12, Erich <erichfreebsdlist_at_ovitrap.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> On 05 June 2012 3:08:17 b. f. wrote:
>> > On 05 June 2012 15:33:16 Mark Andrews wrote:
>> > >
>> > > In message <2490439.EC638TI0j3 at x220.ovitrap.com>, Erich writes:
>> > > > Hi,
>> > > >
>> > All of these, with the exception of HEAD (which is always a valid tag),
>> > only apply to the src/ tree. The ports/, doc/, and www/ trees are not
>> > branched.
>> >
>> > I understand this that I can use these tags on the FreeBSD sources but
>> > not on the ports.
>> >
>> > I never tried this on the ports.
>>
>> I sent a long reply to your earlier message on freebsd-ports
>> explaining exactly this -- how each Ports tree snapshot has a version
>> number: the date spec.  Also, how a few special snapshots also have a
>> second version number: the release tag.  I also explained how to find
>> and use these, with and without cvs.  Am I wasting my time by trying
>> to answer your questions, E.?
>
> I think that you missed my point. The point is that this has to be made
> available for beginners. As long as the handbook states that this does not
> apply to the ports tree, at least beginners will stop there.

If you had hoped to make your point by feigning ignorance of something
that you had just been told on another list, then, yes, I missed your
point -- it was a decidedly subtle one.  You write in this thread:

"I did not know this. Do you have a link for this? I never read about it."

Despite the fact that I explained it to you earlier, with an example:

http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-ports/2012-June/075491.html

The part of the Handbook that you cited above, at:

http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/cvs-tags.html

is the introduction to A.7.1. It refers only to branch tags, and not
to the release tags discussed in A.7.2, where the ports release tags
are mentioned.  This was also in my earlier message, along with the
comment that A.7.2 could be improved.

As far as the version numbers are concerned, I do not understand what
you want.  I already told you how you could use the existing version
numbers with a one-line modification to a sup file, or via cvs.  Do
you want the date spec of the ports tree to be included in the name of
the port tarballs distributed on the FreeBSD server?  Or that you want
portsnap to get a feature to selectively roll-back to earlier ports
tree snapshots?  Or that you simply want changes to the documentation,
explaining how to roll back?  As I told you, I'm a bit skeptical that
your hypothetical beginner, after having encountered a problem
building a port, would usually be able to diagnose the problem and
find the right snapshot to use.  And those that aren't beginners could
probably figure out how to do so with the documentation that already
exists.  But I suppose that the document committers would consider a
proposal to add an example of how to perform a roll-back.

If you want to discuss this further, please move it to a new topic on
the freebsd-ports or freebsd-doc lists, which seem more appropriate.

b.