On Tue, May 19, 2009 at 03:05:38PM +0200, Mel Flynn wrote: > On Saturday 16 May 2009 21:21:54 Jerry McAllister wrote: > > > > > > Sometimes I get a question in the middle of an install that I do > > > > > > not know how to answer and it is an awfully inconvenient time to > > > > > > have to start scrounging for information. Having a commannd that > > > > > > would display all those things and maybe some related information > > > > > > or pointers to information for making an intelligent response - > > > > > > before starting the make - would be very helpful. > > > > > > > > > > Do you have specific examples? Cause I can't think of anything that > > > > > falls under your description. > > > > > > > > Hello All, > > > > > > > > I had a recent experience with editors/openoffice.org-2. Based on past > > > > experience I know that the compile would take a few hours. I started > > > > make and left to do some chores. When I returned I discovered that the > > > > program had aborted as I did not have java installed and had to > > > > download a patch from the Sun website. > > > > > > This can and will not ever be fixed, because it's a legal and not a > > > technical issue. > > > Once you know this, you know to install diablio-jdk first, which takes > > > 5-10 minutes pending download speed. > > > > Yes, I know it is a legal/license issue at Sun and I sort of know to do > > it now, having installed OO a couple of times. But, the point was and is, > > it would help people if the information about having to do it would > > come up right at the first, so a person could have it taken care of > > instead of starting an install which one knows will take hours so > > leaves to do something else and comes back and finds the install > > stopped hours ago because of something that could have and should > > have been taken care of before actually starting the install. > > JDK's should really set IS_INTERACTIVE if distfiles that are not available > cannot be downloaded without user intervention (MAINTAINER cc'd because of > this). This would signal portmaster to present you with a message before > starting the build and letting you go about your business. > > If your ports management software does not recurs through all configuration > dialogs before starting the build, you're not using the right tool for the > job. > > > Some variation of this, often involving entering a 'y' or 'n' at > > some point in the middle of an install that could have been done > > causing an environmental variable or some such to be set ahead of > > time exists in a number of ports I have installed. It is annoying > > to come back from a bunch of tiring meetings only to see that an > > install that could be finished has several more hours to run because > > it was waiting all that time for a y or n. > > This is where -DBATCH comes in. It silences all those. The ones that aren't > silenced and aren't legal issues, should be considered bugs. Various ports > management tools also support "automatic answer" features. Without ports > management software you can always run yes|make -DBATCH.
That is one thing to do, but, the answer is not absolutely always 'y'. Advanced information is still desirable. ////jerry > > -- > Mel > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org" _______________________________________________ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org"
