Well XFree86 was one, OpenSSH and OpenSSL are others, but the dangers in
doing what I was asking are a bit clearer now.  I'm not sure what's more
awkward though, having two version of the same software installed on a
system, and having to tinker with configurations to get things to use the
version you want (the upgraded version), or to upgrade existing software
where it's installed and risk having it "downgraded" with a new system
upgrade.

Couldn't (future tense) NetBSD's install procedure (i.e. upgrade procedure)
do something similar to a pkg_info to check for software installed, and the
version level and not install older software over what's already there?

-Robert

-----Original Message-----
From: netbsd-users-owner@NetBSD.org
[mailto:netbsd-users-owner@NetBSD.org]On Behalf Of Jeremy C. Reed
Sent: Montag, 25. Juli 2005 22:22
To: Robert Cates
Cc: NetBSD, Users
Subject: Re: I've just installed xorg, now what...


On Mon, 25 Jul 2005, Robert Cates wrote:

> I've just installed xorg from pkgsrc and I was hoping it would replace the
> XFree86.  Now that it's installed, how do I go about using it, instead of
> XFree86?

Rebuild all your X-using packages to use Xorg instead. Use X11_TYPE=xorg
in your /etc/mk.conf.

Later, you could remove /usr/X11R6 -- once you know it is not used.

> Also, by default all software packages are installed under /usr/pkg.
Can't
> that be changed so they are installed under /usr, thereby updating
> previously installed software that is for example not listed with
pkg_info,
> like XFree86?  Or is there a (good) reason why you would not want to do
> that?

LOCALBASE=/usr is tricky. And only a few people ever use it or test it. I
have used it for a couple years with pkgsrc on Linux systems, but not on
NetBSD.

Overwriting NetBSD native /usr files may cause problems. Such as same
command name, but different usage or behaviour.

Also, later NetBSD updates (not pkgsrc related) may end up causing
problems to your installed packages.

An pkgsrc buildlinking doesn't work to hide /usr/lib libraries and
/usr/include headers, so may end up detecting or using wrong features.

Do you have any specific software you have in mind that you want to
overwrite?

  Jeremy C. Reed

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