On Thu, 23 Sep 1999, Christoph Badura wrote:

> Simon J. Gerraty wrote:
> 
> > If you only have one machine of the given architecture you still have
> > a problem.  You cannot build a new pkg until you uninstall your backup
> > software.
> 
> True.  OTOH, I'm not sure I buy your argument.  ISTM that you are
> basically arguing that if the FS which LOCALBASE resides on blows up
> duing the build, you can't get at your backups.  Well, if the FS which
> LOCALBASE resides on blows up at any other time, you can't get at your
> backups.  I don't see the risk increase significantly.

More commonly, the package will be broken. The argument is perhaps
contrived, because no one is going to collect and reinstall a package
and all it's associated files from tape, but the point is well taken.
What if the program is your shell, or your window manager? Or ssh, and
you've disabled telnet? It can be a real PITA to recover.

I always try to build with the old package installed. For known
offenders like ncurses, and now amanda, I would simply move certain
files out of the way, and then proceed. That's got to be easier than
collecting files from a dump tape. The correct advice is then, "Always
delete the old package first, unless you know what you're doing."