Bug 43454

Summary:	Packages hard to find, often missing
Product:	Documentation	Reporter:	Jonathan Laventhol <jonathan-dot-laventhol>
Component:	Books & Articles	Assignee:	Remko Lodder <remko>
Status:	Closed FIXED
Severity:	Affects Only Me
Priority:	Normal
Version:	Latest
Hardware:	Any
OS:	Any

Description Jonathan Laventhol 2002-09-28 16:50:02 UTC

It appears that the package mechanism is rusting, in that it is becoming
increasingly difficult to get the packages from the web site.
Specifically, http://www.freebsd.org/ports/index.html refers to packages
but has no easy way to find them.  Further, even if you can find a link
to a package, it often doesn't exist.

If we're not going to support packages, lets get rid of them so that 
users KNOW they have to learn how to compile things.

Fix: 

This is a project management or web site problem.

On the assumption that it's not a simple case of some files
getting lost.

Recommendations based on assumption that we are trying to
help USERS rather than DEVELOPERS (for the simple reason
that developers have more skills and ways to get out
of problems)

1.  Have the web site default 'applications' link be to latest -RELEASE
rather than to -CURRENT

2.  Rebuild the indexes more frequently ... the fact that the index
says there is a package surely means that there was a package at
some point.  Even if it got removed (for good or bad reason) the
web page link shouldn't dangle.

3.  Find out why the packages aren't there and put them back
My opinion is that the packages are one of the MOST important
things about FreeBSD in relation to its usability.

Best regards
How-To-Repeat: http://www.freebsd.org/ports/index.html
click on foe example java and not a single package is listed
Instead you have to do a search, get a result which shows a different
search input:
http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/ports.cgi?query=java&stype=all
now you can change the pulldown to 4.6-RELEASE and search
which gives you:

http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/ports.cgi?query=java&stype=all&release=4.6-RELEASE%2Fi386
These
results have packages listed.

BUT
many of them don't exist, for example
ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-4.6-release/All/jre-1.1.8.tgz

there is no such file

Comment 1 Kris Kennaway 2002-09-29 02:53:32 UTC

On Sat, Sep 28, 2002 at 08:45:37AM -0700, Jonathan Laventhol wrote:

> This is a project management or web site problem.

Correct..it's not a package problem as the subject of your message
suggests.  I don't immediately know how the 'ports' webpage is
generated..I've never looked at it.

Kris

Comment 2 Tilman Keskinoz freebsd_committer

2002-10-22 22:52:40 UTC

Responsible Changed
From-To: freebsd-ports->freebsd-www

This is more a website/cgi Problem than a ports one

Comment 3 Remko Lodder freebsd_committer

2005-05-11 19:30:38 UTC

State Changed
From-To: open->feedback

I am currently figuring out another PR when i walked into this one. 
For the other PR i am building the entire www/ tree and saw that 
the INDEX file used is being fetched from the www cluster for every language 
over and over again. That gives to me that it uses the latest INDEX file to 
generate ports/ which have links to the latest packages. I randomly tested a few 
packages and noticed that they were available and were fetchable etc. 

So it seems to me that this rather OLD PR is not actually very current anymore. 
I will stick this PR into feedback mode for a week, please complain to me if it 
still is accurate and needs more work. If not i will close this PR after a week.

Comment 4 Remko Lodder freebsd_committer

2005-05-11 19:30:38 UTC

Responsible Changed
From-To: freebsd-www->remko

I am currently figuring out another PR when i walked into this one. 
For the other PR i am building the entire www/ tree and saw that 
the INDEX file used is being fetched from the www cluster for every language 
over and over again. That gives to me that it uses the latest INDEX file to 
generate ports/ which have links to the latest packages. I randomly tested a few 
packages and noticed that they were available and were fetchable etc. 

So it seems to me that this rather OLD PR is not actually very current anymore. 
I will stick this PR into feedback mode for a week, please complain to me if it 
still is accurate and needs more work. If not i will close this PR after a week.

Comment 5 Remko Lodder freebsd_committer

2005-05-18 08:13:26 UTC

State Changed
From-To: feedback->closed

As promised. Close this PR after a week with no feedback.