Re: [PLUG] when kswapd goes wild!

[Bill Jonas <bill@billjonas.com>]

On Fri, Nov 02, 2001 at 10:35:48PM -0500, gabriel rosenkoetter wrote:
> The Debian package system? Is there more?

It's my understanding that the primary motivation is to have apt with a
BSD system.

> All three popular BSDs have a fully functional package system
> which, though it maybe doesn't look quite as pretty on-screen,
> handles dependencies and all just as gracefully as debs do... 

The main thing way that it differs is that you can't just type one
command and have a particular package and all its dependecies installed
at one go.  (Assuming I understand the BSD packaging system properly; I
run OpenBSD on my firewall, but it's been pretty hands-off once I got it
set up.)

Yes, ports will do this automatically, but only if you compile from
source.  No automatic dependecy handling if you install binary packages.
Although I'll grant you that for some, this is a feature.  (One of the
reasons often given by people who love Slackware for why they love
Slackware, to take a Linux example.)

So you have two choices: automatic dependency handling with high
installation latency (the compilation process) or no automatic
dependency handling with low installation latency (pkg_add with binary
packages).

Not that one way is better than another; different strokes for different
folks.  After all, most people don't use a *nix-type system, right?  But
that, as I see it, is the main motivation.

BTW, have you ever used apt?  It's quite nice.  It may not be your cup
of tea, though.  It's not nearly as nice as the *BSD ports system if
your thing is compiling all your stuff from source, but it's much nicer
to use if you install binary packages.

-- 
Bill Jonas    *    bill@billjonas.com    *    http://www.billjonas.com/

Developer/SysAdmin for hire!   See http://www.billjonas.com/resume.html

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