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Re: Avoiding software duplication



On 27.12.2018 03:47, Jason Bacon wrote:
> On 12/26/18 9:52 AM, Cág wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> Most major Linux distributions include Python in the base installation.
>> The EL family, for example, depends on it, since YUM is written in it.
>> OpenSSL is pretty much everywhere, too. There are other examples for
>> sure.
>>
>> For such software, can we avoid using the pkgsrc versions, and use those
>> provided by the distribution?
>>
>> -- 
>> caóc
>>
> In many cases, yes, but there are potential problems, including:
> 
> 1. Software not installed via pkgsrc could be modified or removed
> unbeknownst to pkgsrc (e.g. yum update, apt-get upgrade), causing pkgsrc
> dependent software to spontaneously stop functioning.
> 
> 2. As Greg mentioned, the "base" packages in Enterprise Linux systems
> are generally outdated and may not be capable of supporting the latest
> dependent software.  This is not as much of a problem on bleeding-edge
> systems like Ubuntu, but (1) still applies.
> 
> 3. Software from other package managers may be built with different
> options, which are not compatible with pkgsrc dependents.
> 
> 4. More software from foreign packages means a greater likelihood of
> leakage into pkgsrc builds (e.g. configure scripts picking up non-pkgsrc
> versions of tools and libraries).  This is hard to avoid on many Linux
> systems, where add-on software is installed into /usr/bin, ...
> 
> I use pkgsrc extensively on CentOS and my take on avoiding duplication
> is "don't install the Yum version if it's avoidable".  I keep my Yum
> installations to a minimum and use the more recent packages from pkgsrc
> wherever possible.
> 
> I also want my pkgsrc installations to be completely self-reliant to
> avoid unpleasant surprises, so I always set
> 
> PREFER_NATIVE=        no
> PREFER_PKGSRC=        yes
> 
> in my mk.conf.
> 
> To avoid leakage issues, I actually build a full set of binary packages
> in a minimal chroot, and only build from source on a production system
> if I need an optimized or customized build.
> 

This is the right thing to do: host pkgsrc on a thin layer of base
system and avoid duplicates by not using native packages for needed
software. pkgsrc does not work the other way around (and it would be
almost impossible to manage any other software distribution that way).

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