Re: RFC: nih - package manager for pkgsrc

[Jean-Yves Migeon <jeanyves.migeon%free.fr@localhost>]

On 30.12.2010 00:55, Aleksey Cheusov wrote:
> Hello. For a few weeks I've been developing new package manager for
> pkgsrc ( wip/pkgnih-current ).
> 
> The long term goal of this project is to provide both binary and
> source-based update capabilities (in particular to be an alternative for
> pkg_comp, pkg_chk and pkg_rr).  At this moment however only binary
> update is implemented. wip/distbb will be used for safe source-based
> update (build everything in chroots first, and then install).
> 
> pkgnih is very similar to Linux's zypper, apt and yum.

And pkgin, it seems :)

> Features:
>    - perl-5.10->5.12 or similar huge updates may be done
> [snip]
> As the version of the package says (0.0) "nih" is not stable yet, it is
> in active development now, but it is good enough for playing with it and
> it is safe (you'll be promped before package removal or
> installing). Also some features, e.g. "nih clean" and "nih audit" have
> not been implemented yet.
> 
> So, this is a request for comments, feedback, suggestions and so on.

Is it based on specific make targets of pkgsrc (like replace, update,
...), therefore, needs pkgsrc to be untarred, or is it standalone?

Is it purely for NetBSD, or should work with all supported OS?

What do you mean by "source based update capabilities"? You have to
fetch and bootstrap pkgsrc all over, then run for a "make package" +
install?

Last but not least, how is nih supposed to cope with custom pkgsrc
installs, like X11_TYPE native vs modular? Suppose I have installed a
myriad of packages with specific options, and then use nih for a binary
update -- will it bluntly replace the binaries, or yell for an error in
case of breakage for dependencies?

(Note that it is not specific to X11_TYPE, it was just one example that
came through my mind)

Anyway: it is appreciable that some people are working on making pkgsrc
more binary update friendly. Thanks!

Cheers,

-- 
Jean-Yves Migeon
jeanyves.migeon%free.fr@localhost