itojun,

You know, I had _just_looked_at_ my local copy of bsd.pkg.mk and thought
about that, that makes sense I think. I believe what Tim might be 
thinking of is something on top of that, something that could read that
and help the user out, but I think we both believe this information
could be stored somewhere already there or close to it.

Maybe a simple query tool over top might help? We could use your idea
and just extend a command *somewhere* to figure this out for the user quickly.

This is a touchy area since the idea of having configuration files is to
use the files and not wrap them with tools, but perhaps something added
to pkg_info that could figure out the current config based on settings in
bsd.pkg.mk might help in addition to this example file?

So in addition to the error message a user might receive when they try
to install software that does not conform to their setup, they might get
a message that says "run pkg_info -blah" to see what your current config is
and see "pkgsrc/mk.conf.example" for detailed information?

Of course regular documentation would be pursuant ...

| >What might make the most sense (although I readily admit, it would really
| >be a pain in the arse) might be to use a system database like rcfiles
| >to simply have YES NO options in them with an accompanying comment to
| >explain what it is the user is mucking with, for example:
| >
| >sonefile.conf:
| >
| >section ACCEPTABLE_LICENSES+= \
| > commercial="NO" # this controls acceptence of commercial lisc.
| > artistic="YES"  * this controls acceptance of the artistic lic.
| >...
| >even though 9 out of 10 times the user will _read_the_docs_anyway_
| >this goes a long way for the isolated user(s).
| 
| 	basically the idea is to have more comment, right?
| 	how about this?  this will require no change to bsd.pkg.mk.
| 
| itojun
| 
| 
| Index: mk.conf.example
| ===================================================================
| RCS file: /cvsroot/pkgsrc/mk/mk.conf.example,v
| retrieving revision 1.163
| diff -u -r1.163 mk.conf.example
| --- mk.conf.example	2000/10/21 21:20:11	1.163
| +++ mk.conf.example	2000/11/01 03:55:31
| @@ -125,19 +125,37 @@
|  # 			no-profit limited-redistribution shareware
|  # Whitespace-delimited list of the types of license which are
|  # acceptable for installation.  (apart from standard "free" licenses
| -# such as Berkeley/CMU and GPL).
| -# Possible: One or more of: fee-based-commercial-use, no-commercial-use,
| -# no-profit, no-redistribution, shareware
| +# such as Berkeley/CMU and GPL).  Possible values are presented below.
|  #
| -# In addition, the following specific license values should be added
| -# if you have read and accept the corresponding license document:
| -#
| -# kermit-license -- the redistribution license for ckermit
| -# sun-jsdk20-license -- the download license for Sun's JSDK distribution
| -# sun-swing-license -- the download license for Sun's Swing (JFC) toolkit
| -# adobe-acrobat-license -- usage policy for Adobe Acrobat
| -#
|  # Default: none
| +
| +#ACCEPTABLE_LICENSES+=	fee-based-commercial-use
| +# Enable it if you are okay to build/use third-party software, which require
| +# fees for commercial use (i.e. you are willing to pay, or you are
| +# non-commercial).
| +#ACCEPTABLE_LICENSES+=	no-commercial-use
| +# Enable it if you are okay to build/use third-party software, which is not
| +# for commercial use (i.e. you are non-commerical)
| +#ACCEPTABLE_LICENSES+=	no-profit
| +# Enable it if you are okay to build/use third-party software, which is not
| +# for for-profit use (i.e. you will use the software for non-profit purpose)
| +#ACCEPTABLE_LICENSES+=	limited-redistribution
| +# Enable it if you are okay to build/use third-party software, which is not
| +# for for-profit use (i.e. you will use the software for non-profit purpose)
| +#ACCEPTABLE_LICENSES+=	shareware
| +# Enable it if you are okay to build/use shareware.
| +#ACCEPTABLE_LICENSES+=	kermit-license
| +# Enable it if you accept the redistribution license for ckermit and would
| +# like to build ckermit.  see pkgsrc/comms/kermit.
| +#ACCEPTABLE_LICENSES+=	 sun-jsdk20-license
| +# Enable it if you accept the download license for Sun JSDK and would
| +# like to build Sun JSDK.  see pkgsrc/lang/jdk.
| +#ACCEPTABLE_LICENSES+=	 sun-swing-license
| +# Enable it if you accept the download license for Sun's Swing (JFC) toolkit
| +# and would like to build JFC.  see pkgsrc/x11/swing.
| +#ACCEPTABLE_LICENSES+= adobe-acrobat-license
| +# Enable it if you accept the usage policy for Adobe Acrobat
| +# and would like to build it.  see pkgsrc/print/acroread.
|  
|  #SPECIFIC_PKGS=
|  # Don't use the default of all packages (from the top-level of the

-- 
Jason R. Fink <jrf@diverge.org>