S4mmael wrote:
2009/12/3 Richard Mace <mac...@telkomsa.net>:
1.) Keeping installed ports/packages up to date.
As far as I can tell from the docs, perhaps the most convenient method is to
use something like:
# portsnap fetch update
# pkgdb -F
# portupgrade --batch -aP (do I need an "R" here?)
I don't see any reason to upgrade all installed ports on daily or
weekly basis. In most cases you'll get nothing as the result of
updating some port version 2.16.134 to new version 2.16.135 but lost
time.
There are probably as many approaches to this as there are users. I
update very regularly. I find it worse to have a long list of updates
required that to dedicate a little time every day or so to updating. And
I use...
cd /usr/ports
make update
portmaster -aD
portmaster --clean-distfiles
which should first try to find a package from the repositories and failing that
will fall back to a port. What is the current wisdom here?
Yes, it's right.
Given the machine you are targeting initially packages will probably be
fine. I use ports because I have a non-typical processor.
Is it safe to use the --batch switch? As far as I understand, this will use
the configuration defaults and not prompt the user whenever a port requires
some user (options) configuration. Is this interpretation correct?
If the package is in use, there will no prompt. While building a port,
configuration in which this port was built last time is used. If there
is no such configuration, then port builds with default options.
I don't use --batch. I want to use the last configuration unless there
are new options, then I want to be asked. I do use the -D option so that
it does not ask me what to do with the dist files after each new
update. Then I clean the distfiles at the end.
Related to the above, are the default options that appear in the ncurses
dialogues the same as those used in the building of packages?
It's really intresting.
3.) Upgrading ports seems to take considerable time (at least with my
experiments on a 5 year old Pentium IV). I am keen to adopt FreeBSD as my
desktop for work (Physics Professor, Research and teaching). Is it feasible
in a work environment to upgrade ports without getting bogged down in a
compile-a-thon, leaving one with a useless workstation. (My target machine
will be an 8-core HP z600 (Xeon) which leads me to believe that I could do the
upgrading in the background while I continue to work uninterrupted. I'd like
to hear others experiences here.)
Try to use something like "nice portupgrade -a". Read "man nice".
nice is probably the right answer here. Although given what you have
said about your current machine I am not sure you will want/need to be
bleeding edge. It may be best in that case to get it configured and
leave it unless there is a security concern. When you get your new
machine it will not be a factor so I would go with checking for fresh
ports everyday or week. Also you will probably be able to take full
advantage of the new target hardware by compiling from source.
Colin
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