Subject: RE: Things That Suck About pkgsrc, part 3
To: Tim Rightnour <root@garbled.net>
From: Hubert Feyrer <hubert.feyrer@rrzc1.rz.uni-regensburg.de>
List: tech-pkg
Date: 07/15/1998 16:58:01
> On 13-Jul-98 Charles M. Hannum spoke unto us all:
> #  Consider what happens when I give Joe Random a CD.  They install
> #  NetBSD.  Now say they want to install `sudo'.  *Where* do they look?
> #  I'm sure that on reading this, lots of people will say or think `in
> #  pkgsrc', but Joe Random *doesn't know that*.  Even if he manages to
> #  figure out that's what's on the second CD, he still doesn't know how
> #  to use it.
> ...

The primary goal here seems documentation.

I've browsed through src/distrib/notes/*/install, and it seems the various
ports documentation end at different levels. While some just provide
enough information on what's do be done, others go as far as guiding the
user through setting up /etc/rc.conf, adding users etc. 

If you end all these */install files at a certain point (say: the system's
halting at the first boot, screaming for /etc/rc.conf to be edited w/
rc_configured=YES), we could add more information after that
"installation" phase in the MI part of the INSTALL doc: how to do some
basic "post-install"-setup (services like DNS, setting default router),
adding users, and also add a note on pkgs. 

That's IMHO the way to go.

Of course I don't have any time as usual, and if someone wants to jump in,
feel free to do so. What's needed in the first point is probably some ok
from port maintainers about the fact that their install-docs may get
truncated/extended. Etc.


 - Hubert

--
Hubert Feyrer <hubert.feyrer@rz.uni-regensburg.de>