Ted Unangst wrote on Fri, Dec 12, 2008 at 05:20:19PM -0500:
> Why would I know to use -M? Because I read the man page and want to
> see the "install-message file"? I already installed the damn thing,
> so obviously I don't want to see that file.
The install message is not a "message explaining how to install",
but a "message to read after install", in order to put "the damn thing"
in production.
Strangely, there is little information in the man pages
(1) What a ports maintainer should put into pkg/MESSAGE, except for half
a sentence in pkg_create(1), option -M: "Useful for things like
legal notices on almost-free software, etc."
The porting checklist on the web page says little, either.
(2) What a user might expect to find in an install message.
In particular, this might be useful to decide whether or not
to use -M.
I'm aware of the ongoing discussion concerning merits and problems
of +DISPLAY files (and i agree some are rather bloaty, and i share
the bad habit of heeding them little because they are so numerous),
but for the time being, it might help to tell users (like tedu@ ;-)
what to expect with the current state of affairs:
Index: pkg_info.1
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvs/src/usr.sbin/pkg_add/pkg_info.1,v
retrieving revision 1.30
diff -u -r1.30 pkg_info.1
--- pkg_info.1 26 Oct 2008 16:16:37 -0000 1.30
+++ pkg_info.1 13 Dec 2008 17:15:14 -0000
@@ -138,6 +138,8 @@
This lets you add a special token to the start of each field.
.It Fl M
Show the install-message file (if any) for each package.
+If any step not documented in the manual must be taken before a package
+can be used, this file will often mention it.
.It Fl P
Show the pkgpath for each package.
You can easily build a subdirlist with this.
