macports and OS-X upgrades
in [Mac Systems]
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From: Ian Gregory on 5 May 2010 19:45 On 2010-05-05, Jolly Roger <jollyroger(a)pobox.com> wrote: > I, too, will do it up to a point. If the dependency list is too long and > cumbersome on Mac OS X (this hasn't happened to me but once or twice in > many years), I re-evaluate my need for that piece of software and > investigate alternatives. So far, I haven't needed a package manager. > I'm happy. I feel the same but opposite:-) If I want something that I can't install using MacPorts (this has only happened a couple of times), I re-evaluate my need for that piece of software. So far I haven't needed to build anything by hand. I'm happy. Of course if I really wanted something that I couldn't install using MacPorts I would do what you do - build it myself and put it in /usr/local. But the more stuff you do that way the more of a headache maintenance becomes. That is the real beauty of MacPorts - Software Update can't screw things up and you can update everything to the latest build using a single port command. But each to his own. Building and maintaining stuff yourself is certainly educational, I'll give it that. Once you get good at it you could even volunteer at MacPorts and use your skill to benefit the whole community:-) Ian -- Ian Gregory http://www.zenatode.org.uk/
From: JF Mezei on 5 May 2010 20:19 Ian Gregory wrote: > Of course if I really wanted something that I couldn't install using > MacPorts I would do what you do - build it myself and put it in > /usr/local. But the more stuff you do that way the more of a headache > maintenance becomes. That is the real beauty of MacPorts - Software > Update can't screw things up and you can update everything to the latest > build using a single port command. The problem is that Macport ehas a Windows phisolophy whyere every app has its own copy of a DLL to make sure that another app doesn't screw it. It would be nicer if all the apps behaved and the OS provided services followed Unix standards so that any Unix app could be compiled and operate using standard Apple provided services/libraries (and Apple promising to make all those services upward compatible). Easy said than done. If I know that Macports always installs stuff in its own directories and won't affect other stuff, I can accept it. But when I saw it download openSSL, I was worried that it would screw the openssl that comes with OS-X.
From: Ian Gregory on 5 May 2010 21:05 On 2010-05-06, JF Mezei <jfmezei.spamnot(a)vaxination.ca> wrote: > Ian Gregory wrote: > >> Of course if I really wanted something that I couldn't install using >> MacPorts I would do what you do - build it myself and put it in >> /usr/local. But the more stuff you do that way the more of a headache >> maintenance becomes. That is the real beauty of MacPorts - Software >> Update can't screw things up and you can update everything to the latest >> build using a single port command. > > The problem is that Macport ehas a Windows phisolophy whyere every app > has its own copy of a DLL to make sure that another app doesn't screw it. If you consider the whole MacPorts system to be an application, then yes, it does use its own copy of required libraries (often much more up to date than the ones in the OS). But if you think of each individual port (of which there are more than 6,000 to chose from) as an application then no, they all share the same set of libraries. The basic idea is that the MacPorts system is pretty much isolated from the OS, minimising the possibility of breakage in either direction. That is why you can run "port install" commands willy-nilly without worrying about mucking up built-in Mac OS X stuff and run Software Update without breaking your ports. If it wasn't so I would be reluctant to use it. Ian -- Ian Gregory http://www.zenatode.org.uk/
From: Warren Oates on 6 May 2010 08:22 In article <slrnhu40pd.30t.ianji33(a)zenatode.org.uk>, Ian Gregory <ianji33(a)googlemail.com> wrote: > Once you get good at it you > could even volunteer at MacPorts and use your skill to benefit the whole > community:-) I'll get right on that. -- Very old woody beets will never cook tender. -- Fannie Farmer
From: Warren Oates on 6 May 2010 08:24
In article <4be20b1d$0$5231$c3e8da3(a)news.astraweb.com>, JF Mezei <jfmezei.spamnot(a)vaxination.ca> wrote: > If I know that Macports always installs stuff in its own directories and > won't affect other stuff, I can accept it. But when I saw it download > openSSL, I was worried that it would screw the openssl that comes with OS-X. There are some issues with ssl. I forget now what they are exactly. Mostly I think that some parts of OS X don't use the PATH variable to find stuff. -- Very old woody beets will never cook tender. -- Fannie Farmer |