On Wed, 19 Jun 2002, Marton Fabo wrote:

> It mentions a target of "package", which is supposed to build a binary package
> tarball out of a (installed) package. Well, I tried this on x11/kde3 (which
> is already built and installed on my system), and I got this:
...
> ===>  kde-3.0.1 is already installed - perhaps an older version?
> *** If so, you may wish to ``pkg_delete kde-3.0.1'' and install
> *** this package again by ``make reinstall'' to upgrade it properly,
> *** or use ``make update'' to upgrade it and all of its dependencies.
> *** If you really wish to overwrite the old package of kde-3.0.1
> *** without deleting it first, set the variable "FORCE_PKG_REGISTER"
> *** in your environment or the "make install" command line.

"make packge" is supposed to be done at build time, "while it's
fresh". So if you want to keep binary packages for everything you
install, use "make package" instead of "make install". There is a
"pkgtools/pkg_tarup" packages, that can generate a reasonable
facsimile of a binary package from an already installed package,
if that's what you're wanting to do.

> Is "make package" supposed to work recursively on required packages at all?

Yes, but only for the packages that need to be built, not for the
already installed ones. Nothing is done with them. (If you alway use
"make package" instead of "make install", you'd already have binary
packages for the installed pre-requisites.)

> And if yes (or if no) what is it supposed to do on a meta-package like kde3?

It'll make a meta-package! -- a skinny package with only dependencies,
no files.

Frederick