Bug 93517

Summary:	Presented usage of Ports in Handbook lacks several important things.
Product:	Documentation	Reporter:	Sideris Michael <msid>
Component:	Books & Articles	Assignee:	freebsd-doc (Nobody) <doc>
Status:	Closed FIXED
Severity:	Affects Only Me
Priority:	Normal
Version:	Latest
Hardware:	Any
OS:	Any

Description Sideris Michael 2006-02-18 08:30:09 UTC

Correct me if I am wrong, but i really tried to search around if there is such a thing or methodology posted somewhere and is linked as an official resource of explaining what I am going to mention below.

I have been using FreeBSD for more than a year. I have read couple of books, a number of Internet resources, I participated in forums as well as thoroughly reading the FreeBSD handbook. A few months ago though I learned the efficient way of working with Ports. Now, what is the problem here.

In the Handbook is stated clearly how to install a port and how to uninstall it and how you can use portupgrade to execute a massive upgrade on the currently installed ports as well as some other stuff. What is really missing from there is the fact that all the WITH knobs someone can find in Makefile can be used in /etc/make.conf as a global configuration. Also, since you mention portupgrade as a tool, which is part of pkgtools, you can mention that, will someone need to customize a port despite the global configuration he or she can use the pkgtools.conf file that comes when you install portupgrade and hence pkgtools. As far as I know, this way, WITH knobs are read both when you issue make install clean or using portupgrade/portinstall.

To conclude, I would like to mention that it would be nice to have a tool, that would read the dependencies of the port you want to install and will print on the screen the available WITH knobs for each dependency separately so that the user can use them in /etc/make.conf to customize his or her environment.

Comment 1 Sam Lawrance freebsd_committer

2006-02-18 09:15:20 UTC

On 18/02/2006, at 8:21 AM, Sideris Michael wrote:
>
> Correct me if I am wrong, but i really tried to search around if  
> there is such a thing or methodology posted somewhere and is linked  
> as an official resource of explaining what I am going to mention  
> below.
>
> I have been using FreeBSD for more than a year. I have read couple  
> of books, a number of Internet resources, I participated in forums  
> as well as thoroughly reading the FreeBSD handbook. A few months  
> ago though I learned the efficient way of working with Ports. Now,  
> what is the problem here.
>
> In the Handbook is stated clearly how to install a port and how to  
> uninstall it and how you can use portupgrade to execute a massive  
> upgrade on the currently installed ports as well as some other  
> stuff. What is really missing from there is the fact that all the  
> WITH knobs someone can find in Makefile can be used in /etc/ 
> make.conf as a global configuration.

It's a feature of make, rather than the ports collection - see make 
(1) and make.conf(5).  It would still be good to have it documented;  
can you please send a patch?

Some ports use the OPTIONS framework.  This avoids the need for  
putting WITH_* in make.conf, because those ports "remember" the  
settings given to them.

> Also, since you mention portupgrade as a tool, which is part of  
> pkgtools, you can mention that, will someone need to customize a  
> port despite the global configuration he or she can use the  
> pkgtools.conf file that comes when you install portupgrade and  
> hence pkgtools. As far as I know, this way, WITH knobs are read  
> both when you issue make install clean or using portupgrade/ 
> portinstall.

Patch? ;-)

> To conclude, I would like to mention that it would be nice to have  
> a tool, that would read the dependencies of the port you want to  
> install and will print on the screen the available WITH knobs for  
> each dependency separately so that the user can use them in /etc/ 
> make.conf to customize his or her environment.

Yes, it would.  Once I saw some scripts floating around that grepped  
out the WITH_ knobs from a port.  If you can find it, perhaps you can  
extended it to work recursively.  Again note that it's not useful for  
ports using OPTIONS since make config-recursive will do the trick.

Comment 2 Sam Lawrance freebsd_committer

2006-02-18 12:46:28 UTC

State Changed
From-To: open->feedback

Waiting for patches (submitter will work on it).

Comment 3 Sam Lawrance freebsd_committer

2006-02-18 12:46:28 UTC

Responsible Changed
From-To: freebsd-ports-bugs->freebsd-doc

It's a doc thing.

Comment 4 Remko Lodder freebsd_committer

2006-10-13 10:41:36 UTC

State Changed
From-To: feedback->closed

Feedback timeout. 

IF the patches are there, please send them to us so that we can 
have a look at them, we would gladly look into it and commit it 
with your help. 

Thanks.