[ On Saturday, April 6, 2002 at 21:28:04 (+0200), Julio Merino wrote: ]
> Subject: Re: X11 packages outside /usr/X11R6
>
> You can always tarup your current X11R6, then remove it and install the
> new version. If you notice some library missing, you can restore it from
> your backup... This way you will avoid some stale libraries and old
> files. Am I wrong?

Hmmmm....  yes, but why bother?

(or even just re-extract the desired library from the old release sets)

We can probably trust that any incompatible ABI changes in the libraries
will have been noticed by developers since a "make build" of /usr/xsrc
will just install new libraries over top old ones and if any developer
happens to have a third-party program that uses those libraries (and I'm
sure most do), but which isn't (right away) also rebuilt against the
"new" library and re-installed then any un-accounted-for changes will
hopefully show up quite quickly.

For X11R6 in particular there's been very little upheaval in the content
and its location (within /usr/X11R6).  Just unpack the new sets and go.

Libraries are the most likely thing to change, and my pedantic worries
about other binaries are mostly irrelevant from an general user's point
of view since those old programs should still work.  It's only
developers and system integrators who have to worry about such things.

Ideally of course one should wipe and re-build all packages when
upgrading, though of course this isn't really practical for those
following -current (or even those following a release branch via CVS).

By not wiping clean /usr/X11R6 then any packages or manually installed
software will continue to work even if there has been a properly
versioned ABI change.

-- 
								Greg A. Woods

+1 416 218-0098;  <gwoods@acm.org>;  <g.a.woods@ieee.org>;  <woods@robohack.ca>
Planix, Inc. <woods@planix.com>; VE3TCP; Secrets of the Weird <woods@weird.com>