: > Upgrading an a.out /usr/pkg in place is a Bad Idea.
   :
   : Perhaps. Personally, I found mixed a.out & ELF pkg world too painfull
   : to deal with, so I just replaced all pkgs I had with ELF ones at the time.
   : It also looked as a good longer-term thing to do.
   
   I replaced all packages with ELF ones as well, but I was able to keep the
   machines *running* (several of these were multiuser boxes with important
   server daemons in /usr/pkg!) while doing the upgrade, rather than shutting
   down the system to wait for a piss-slow rebuild of the whole shebang.
   
   This was the whole point of moving the old /usr/pkg as a unit:  you end up
   with the old stuff still available and runnable while preparing the new,
   upgraded versions.
   
   : > -- some other people may find utility in it.  I've needed COMPAT_AOUT a
   : > total of 6 times already for migration purposes.
   :
   : Would those be impossible to do with ld.so solution only?
   
   Not the above migration as described.


i guess you've never heard of chroot?  personally, that's how
*i've* managed to keep systems up while upgrading other things.


i'm still unconvinced that there is anything not already
provided for.


.mrg.