Ports recommending other ports

[Bradley Giesbrecht]

On Feb 12, 2009, at 11:23 PM, Ryan Schmidt wrote:

>
> On Feb 13, 2009, at 01:10, Bradley Giesbrecht wrote:
>
>>>> 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.
>
> If you find a port that installs a config file that the user is  
> expected to edit with the actual name the program expects to find,  
> that is a bug, and you should file a ticket for that port in the  
> issue tracker so that the issue can be corrected.

If that ever happens I hope I'm not the one reporting it:)

It's not like etc changes all the time. I just need to make sure I  
take some snapshots every so often.

Thanks for sharing your insights Ryan.

//Brad