Ports recommending other ports

[Bradley Giesbrecht]

>> I don't know how macports handles upgrades with respect to etc file  
>> changes but  gentoo has a nice "etc-update" program that allows you  
>> replace, merge or ignore etc config files. This CAN be important.  
>> But gentoo portage is also managing the "world" and thankfully we  
>> have Apple taking care of basics.
>>
>> I mean, merging etc files remotely can be hair raising. Especially  
>> when gentoo will upgrade everyFREAKINGthing if you don't tell it  
>> not to and there are etc updates for like 30 files from fstab on.
>> Who wants to recompile gcc for every minor update?
>> And have it go wrong?
>> Remotely?
>
> MacPorts does nothing to help the user upgrade their config files  
> in /etc. If a port is nice, it installs template config files the  
> user can copy. If not, it installs the config file with its real  
> name so that any port upgrade will wipe out the user's changes...

Ouch. And did I mention OUCH.

Damn, how about moving same file names in ${prefix}/etc out of the way  
with a timestamp appended?

Something!

That's really a possibility?

Maybe it's possible and just doesn't happen. Man, that scares me.

I wonder how hard it would be to use something like rsnapshot (never  
used it, just did port search snapshot) on etc before port install.  
That would be an option I'd probably turn on.

Guess I could just wing my own. Or just pray more.


//Brad