On Mon, 3 Oct 2005 14:44:16 +0200
Jeroen Ruigrok/asmodai <asmodai@in-nomine.org> wrote:

> Is there any compelling reason that make update deinstalls first and then
> goes to try to build the pkg?
> 
> In my naive eyes it would make more sense to:
> 
> build
> upon completion of build deinstall old package
> install new package
> 
> The way it currently is done leaves the user with extreme little if the new
> package breaks in some way, since he/she will also not have the old software
> installed thanks to the friendly deinstall prior to building.

Maybe that's because you can have chains of dependancies:

A->B->C->D

So A depends on B, which depends on C, which depends on D
To update A, you'd have to remove D, C, B in this order and rebuild them.

I've never used 'make update' so don't know how safe it is. What I usually end
up doing is rebuilding outdated packages in chroot jail and if everything
builds OK, reinstalling them on my main system.