In article <199409131459.KAA16338@duality.gnu.ai.mit.edu> "Charles M. Hannum" <mycroft@gnu.ai.mit.edu> writes:
> 
> 2) When you port a package, you should communicate with the author to
> get NetBSD support put in the base distribution.  (Keep in mind that
> the author/maintainer may not like your first cut of patches.)  This
> is the best thing you can do for the community as a whole; it helps
> the author become more aware of porting issues, it helps you not to
> have to maintain a separate version of the package, and it helps other
> NetBSD users because they can pick up the package from anywhere and
> have it `just work'.

I don't think this can be emphasized enough.  It's also nice for users
of other OSes to not have to wade through NetBSD versions to find the
standard distribution.  I don't know how many times I've archied for a
piece of software and had to sort through umpteen dozen &*^*&*&% Linux
versions before finding the standard version.  Please, let's not us
inflict that on others... 

> 5) It would be useful to integrate this with the NetBSD install
> system.  The current mechanism allows for optional installation of
> packages, but not deinstallation.  It also has no way of running a
> post-install or post-deinstall script to munge other system files.
> Both of these are (unfortunately) necessary for a complete optional
> install mechanism.  They should be relatively easy to do.

How about adopting the FreeBSD pkg_* tools? They seem to do the job. Is
there a reason for not using them?

-- 
Ty Sarna                   "You can lead a gift horse to water but 
tsarna@endicor.com          you can't make him look you in the mouth"