> Hmmmm.  How do I "SUP" to a given date?  I use ssh to get my anonymous

I don't think that you do.  But you say that you're using CVS; can't you
get a CVS checkout by date?  (I haven't used CVS much in a year or so, but
it should support checkouts by date.)

SUP works by collection, note by date, so it pulls down the current
versions of each file in the collection you ask for.  No options, no
questions asked.  (So I understand it.)

I used SUP because I wanted the most recent version (of all of
pkgsrc---partial updates seem like an evil idea; (^&).  So I manually ran
SUP in the first week of December.


CVS involves a bit more to set up (by percentage; neither is really that
hard), but gives you much more control.  (Specific files, dates, branch
tags, ...)

You should be able to get something approximating my pkgsrc tree with a
CVS checkout.  There weren't any major problems rebuilding KDE2, as I
recall.  (I think that I already had it on there and just picked it up as
an automatic update...)

I remember when switching from KDE to KDE2 there *was* some confusion.
Parts of pkgsrc thought that KDE2 was a different *version* of KDE and
other parts knew that it was a seperate *package*.  As a result, I got
(parts of) KDE reinstalled and deinstalled several times as things tried
to work themselves out.  IIRC, my solution to that problem was simply to
delete everything that depended upon KDE, then install KDE2.

But, I believe that all of that predates December.  (^&


>Aaagh!  Although watching stuff compile can be fun, it is a real
>problem when you are on a shared computer, and the other person wants
>to get their email...

If it's an i386, we have virtual consoles (or whatever the term is---I
just use them).  You may have to enable it in your kernel and tweak an
/etc file.  (I'm pretty sure that GENERIC supports these already; I'm less
sure about the default /etc state.)  Use <Ctrl>-<Alt>-<Fn>, where <Fn> is
the n'th function key and corresponds to the nth
screen/console/terminal/whatever.

There's also window(1) that ships with NetBSD, and screen in pkgsrc.
These give you text-based console windows.

Since you're on a home system, you presumably trust the other person not
to mess with stuff, so they can check email.  (Provided that they don't
mind the load on the disk/internet connection.)

Or, if you have X up, just give'em another xterm and hide the one that's
compiling so that they don't accidentally interact with it and cause
grief.


Re. plain X vs. a desktop: Hm.  Well, I've never administered a system for
other people.  I don't know what they look for, or what kind of questions
you get hit with.  I guess that I can't comment except to say that you
have my sympathies.  (^&


  ``I probably don't know what I'm talking about.'' --rauch@math.rice.edu