Re: pkg/42267: pkg_comp: quick exit if pkg is installed already (patch)

[Robert Elz <kre%munnari.OZ.AU@localhost>]

The following reply was made to PR pkg/42267; it has been noted by GNATS.

From: Robert Elz <kre%munnari.OZ.AU@localhost>
To: gnats-bugs%NetBSD.org@localhost
Cc: 
Subject: Re: pkg/42267: pkg_comp: quick exit if pkg is installed already (patch)
Date: Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:40:28 +0700

     Date:        Thu,  5 Nov 2009 18:40:03 +0000 (UTC)
     From:        "Martin S. Weber" <Ephaeton%gmx.net@localhost>
     Message-ID:  <20091105184003.BE4D763C403%www.NetBSD.org@localhost>
 
   |  Well, then, let's fix the install target to silently succeed if the 
package
   |  is installed already.
 
 That could be done, but probably not as a result of this PR, you'd want
 to submit a change request for pkgsrc itself (it is probably something in
 pkgsrc/mk/install/* - but that's a guess).
 
   | It's quite ridiculous that it's failing in that case
   |  anyways! Especially if the fix is that trivial.
 
 The difficulty of the fix has little to do with whether the problem is
 a bug or not - sometimes we live with bugs because fixing them is hard,
 but I doubt anyone believes that here.
 
 I suspect it is more that people actually like an error when they try
 and install something that is installed already, rather than just to be
 silently ignored.   To me it is not obvious that either way is right.
 
 To perhaps avoid the issue, if you want, I can send you copies of the
 scripts I use (which use pkg_comp - of course) that avoid the problems
 you're seeing - that is, that make sure that whatever I ask to be built,
 the right things get built, in the right order, so that it has now been
 a very long time since I've had anything fail the way you described (yes,
 that used to bug me as well...)
 
 My scripts aren't really distribution quality, you'd need to do a little
 editing to fix path names that apply to me, that you'd want different
 (anyone would want different - even I often want different!) which are
 just built in (but mostly via shell var assignments, not sprinkled throughout).
 
 Lastly, I believe in an almost empty pkg_comp sandbox, so the scripts like
 to frequently destroy/recreate it - unpacking existing binary packages
 for dependencies is generally fast, and this way the binary packages that
 get built avoid having hidden dependencies upon other stuff that the
 configure nonsense just happened to find lying around....   I use pkgsrc
 modular xorg, but the scripts don't know that, I have used them with the
 standard X releases as well, that's just a pkg_comp config issue, you still
 need to do that the normal way.   But if this style of working isn't what
 you want, my scripts might not be what you need (they might provide a
 starting point though).
 
 kre
 
 ps: offer applies to anyone else who uses pkg_comp, or would like to, if
 you're not a pkg_comp user, they'd be useless to you.