Subject: Re: PROPOSAL: NetBSD System Packages (LONG)
To: Ty Sarna <tsarna@endicor.com>
From: Jonathan Stone <jonathan@DSG.Stanford.EDU>
List: tech-pkg
Date: 09/30/1998 21:17:35
tsarna@endicor.com (Ty Sarna) writs;
In article <199810010023.RAA07047@Smeg.DSG.Stanford.EDU>,
Jonathan Stone  <jonathan@DSG.Stanford.EDU> wrote:
> 
>> I think we've gotten close to agreement (or is it resignation?)
>> on pkgsets.
>
>No, we have not.

Ty,

One consensus[*] amongst the developer community after discussion of
sysinst's shortcomings and what we should do to fix it ``for the next
major release'' included (in Jim's words) the requirement

	``downloaded and verified easily _by hand_''

that's a requirement. I don't see how to meet that using meta-pkgs. do
you?  Are we talking about tarballs both containing meta-pkgs at the
"set" level, plus all the depended-on pkgs, or what?


[*] As best I recall.  I tried to follow the discussion carefully, and
also to follow reports on current-users.  The next-most-asked-for
feature is a "log file" of what was recorded, either for diagnosing
failures, or to 'replay' for a later, near-identical setup (e.g., to
"clone" an install onto a group of machines in a lab or public cluster).

If I'd got the facts wrong, someone would've challenged me on it by now.