Greg A. Woods sez:
/*
 * Isn't this all politics?  Is there any technical reason why installing
 * packages into /usr is bad (especially if you keep in mind that the pkg
 * system will include a database that lets the origin of every file be
 * determined?

Yes.  Size and location.

I want my / and /usr to have BASE SYSTEM BINARIES in them, keeping them
a _known size as determined at installation time_.

I want my /usr/local to contain NON-BASE SYSTEM BINARIES in it.  I can
destroy my /usr/local, enlarge it and repopulate it with a minimum of
grief.

The only place an /etc makes sense is under root.  Config files
aren't likely to overrun root in any case.

/var shouldn't be exported anyway.

If you WANT to integrate your system, well, fine and dandy, but
I think the default should be (/etc, /var, ${LOCALBASE}).

My question of elegance is:  is there any way we can do this without
a stupid symlink?

Should there be /etc/pkg.conf in which one could specify the locations,
or are we talking binary packages, here?  [in which case I think I'll
drop out of the discussion since I'm wont to compile my own stuff
anyway.]

 * 
 * (I suppose if you install *everything* in /usr/pkgsrc then /usr/bin
 * get's rather large, but presumably someone with the resources to insall
 * every package will have a system capable of dealing with a large
 * /usr/bin.)

Some of us don't WANT to have to do this.

 * 
 * A warning is indeed a damn good idea.
 * 
 * One might even require that a "/usr/pkg" exist, whether it's a
 * directory, or a symlink.
 * 
 * It could point at "/usr" to enable the "mixed" variation.  (Of course
 * this latter idea suggests that without a feature to separately identify
 * config and run-time files in PLIST one would also probably want to have
 * /usr/pkg/etc and /usr/pkg/var symlinks.)
   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

GAAAAAHHH! <smacks own head> [now, where's that brick with the words
"BEAT HEAD HERE" chiseled into it...?]

 */





				--*greywolf;
--
America is quite possibly the only country to go from barbarism to
decadence without the requisite intervening period of civilisation.