On 7/25/05, Robert Cates <robert@kormar.net> wrote:
> Couldn't (future tense) NetBSD's install procedure (i.e. upgrade procedur=
e)
> do something similar to a pkg_info to check for software installed, and t=
he
> version level and not install older software over what's already there?
>=20
> -Robert
>=20

You know, that's not a bad idea, but why not go all the way?
Admittedly, I know little to nothing about the technical workings of
pkgsrc, but would it be at all feasible for the base system to exist
as a package that is implicitly installed on NetBSD systems? Would
that not solve any problem of naming conflicts, making it possible to
do LOCALBASE=3D/ without problems (perhaps with a reserved directory,
say /opt or /usr/local, for non-package files)?

This is just an idea; again, I haven't yet looked at all into how
pkgsrc works and won't pretend to have the faintest idea how possible
or reasonable it is, but if this were doable, the benefits would be
appreciable (for instance, only one update framework would need to be
maintained, and you could conceivably update your base system and all
of your installed packages with a single command.)

--Steve