On Wed, 16 Dec 1998, Greg A. Woods wrote:

: > People using the existing package system -- and more importantly, existing
: > binary pkgs -- have to do Nothing to use the new system; simply adding a
: > symlink at /usr/pkg (instead of letting pkg_add create the directory)
: > suffices to intermix binaries.  People who don't have to mix don't change a
: > thing.
: 
: Umm....  do you mean people using binary pkgs should be able to install
: them in a different location simply by changing the symlink?  If so,
: then I don't think that'll work for *all* packages.  It might work for
: some, but if there are paths compiled into those binaries then they'll
: also have to be visible through their compiled paths.

Symlink /usr/pkg to /usr/local

Install a binary pkg of socks5 to /usr/pkg

Run "runsocks", which finds its library in /usr/pkg/lib/libsocks5_sh.so ...
and look, it finds it, thanks to the symlink.

:  So far as I can tell it's still not a given that all packages can be
: installed at a different prefix than they were compiled for.  This
: should be fixed,

No, it shouldn't, because we are not willing to do the legwork to fix All
sources (unless, of course, you want to do it all -- see emacs for a good
place to start.)

: > Because neither our current system nor the distrib-lists -> pkg proposal in
: > the works have that fine of granularity such that you can pkg_delete
: > something installed with the system distribution.  So, you move the system
: > stuff out of the way so that your pkg installed stuff will not conflict.
: 
: Why not?  What exactly are you getting at here?
: 
: If I compile and install a pkgsrc package with "LOCALBASE=/", and it
: replaces system files, then I will still be able to pkg_delete that
: package.  I just can't restore the system files without re-installing
: the entire system.  That's not necessarily a bad thing.

You didn't read the original text.  Curt sugested using pkg_delete to remove
the _system-installed_ binaries before installing a replacement-binary pkg.

-- 
-- Todd Vierling (Personal tv@pobox.com; Bus. todd_vierling@xn.xerox.com)