Re: pkg/48110 (PKG_DBDIR in /etc/pkg_install.conf is ignored by pkgsrc make)

[Toby Karyadi <toby.karyadi%gmail.com@localhost>]

The following reply was made to PR pkg/48110; it has been noted by GNATS.

From: Toby Karyadi <toby.karyadi%gmail.com@localhost>
To: gnats-bugs%NetBSD.org@localhost
Cc: 
Subject: Re: pkg/48110 (PKG_DBDIR in /etc/pkg_install.conf is ignored by pkgsrc
 make)
Date: Mon, 12 Aug 2013 15:59:38 -0400

 What I really like about pkgsrc is the ability to cleanly separate the 
 base stuff (whatever comes with netbsd) and the other stuff, no 
 intermingling in /usr/bin/, /usr/lib, what have you. I'd like to be able 
 to just delete /usr/pkg and you're back with a base OS, or at least 
 close to it. By having the pkg db in the same dir as the installation 
 directory I can better ensure that pkg_info is telling me an accurate 
 answer.
 
 Another use case that I can think of would be to have different pkgsrc 
 installation directories, e.g. /usr/pkg0, /usr/pkg1, /usr/pkg-broken, 
 /usr/pkg-testing, what have you, and have /usr/pkg as a symlink to one 
 of those. By keeping the pkgdb with the installation dir, it would allow 
 for quickly switching between different pkgsrc installation sets. I 
 haven't actually tried this, but there shouldn't be any reason for it to 
 fail. I faintly remember something about pkg views which might do the 
 same thing, but I haven't look much into it.
 
 The way I see this issue is more like value inheritance in the hierarchy 
 that starts with pkg_install.conf (for the pkg_*) at the base, that can 
 be overriden at the mk.conf level (for the pkgsrc build), and finally 
 can be overriden at the environment variable level. Note, that at any of 
 those levels it should be possible that the value override is equal to 
 the default value, but it should tell the machinery that I really want 
 to use that value at that particular level.
 
 Since pkgsrc build machinery should logically use pkg_install and 
 pkg_delete, and actually is, I was really surprised that it didn't take 
 the specific setting from pkg_install.conf. So, it's more of an 
 unexpected behavior. If no change is going to be done, at least the 
 documentation should give a warning.
 
 I know this is trivial, but thanks for not sweeping this under the rug.
 
 Toby