MacPorts on multiple Macs

Ryan Schmidt ryandesign at macports.org
Sat Oct 13 01:57:05 PDT 2012


On Oct 13, 2012, at 02:34, Rodolfo Aramayo wrote:

> Hi Petra,
> 
> Regarding your question
> 
> Do not do that
> 
> I currently manage >15 computers with MacPorts installed and I can
> tell you that each machine is a universe on its own. Even those who
> are 'identical' at the hardware and software level they are not really
> absolutely equivalent and that depends on the software installed. In
> the past I tried simplifying my life by designing strategies to keep
> all 'identical' machines in sync, but it did not really work. I
> observed very erratic and unexplained behaviors. The way I 'solved'
> those problems is by installing everything locally on each machine and
> letting each box compile its software
> 
> Even little details like the order you created the users on the
> machines can have drastic consequences for the assigned UIDs the
> system gives each user and that can result in all kinds of unexpected
> permission problems. Software updates by Apple could also change
> according to the software installed on each machine from machine to
> machine in ways we cannot really know in advance

But... we have buildbots now. They build binaries and distribute them to users. Many users are using this successfully.

Yes, there have been occasional problems with this too... But since this is a feature we're committed to continuing to provide, we'd like to resolve any such problems.





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