Re: pkg_install in base system again

[Alistair Crooks <agc%pkgsrc.org@localhost>]

On Sun, Nov 06, 2011 at 08:47:24PM +0100, Joerg Sonnenberger wrote:
> On Sun, Nov 06, 2011 at 11:06:26AM -0800, John Nemeth wrote:
> >      Could you imagine an Ubuntu user having to jump through hoops to
> > get yum and apt (or whatever they use)?  Wouldn't happen!  Similarly,
> > pkgsrc IS NetBSD's packaging system and as such it MUST be a first
> > class citizen on a NetBSD system.  Making a NetBSD user jump through
> > ANY kind of hoop in order to use NetBSD's packaging system is a
> > non-starter.  The fact that pkgsrc can be used on other systems is not
> > relevant to this.
> 
> This argument is ridiculous and always has been. As has been suggested
> the last time, it is not such a big issue to ensure that pkg_install can
> be cross-installed from pkgsrc and to provide it as set for sysinst.
> So either you want to use binary packages, in which case you can pick up
> the package easily. Or you want to build from source, in which case you
> can bootstrap it.
> 
> The fact remains that keeping it in base has proven time and time again
> to create *more* issues for NetBSD users.

For it to be a fact, I think you have to be able to prove it. Proving
something which isn't true is a tad difficult. Possibly we can cons something
up with a zero division, but there's maybe someone who would notice that.

NetBSD and pkgsrc run just fine together with pkg_install in the base
system.

However, that is not the issue, and I think we should be moving on, and a
bit more forward looking.

I'm not convinced that pkg_setup is the right way to go. I have a number
of versions of NetBSD-current sitting around. Who will provide the binary
package for those (always assuming that we've been convinced that it's
the right thing to do?). What do we do about machines that aren't always
connected to a good gateway. In lieu of signatures actually being used on
binary packages, where does the trust come from for this binary package?
What machine was it built on? What compiler was it built with?

Interested parties want to know.

Regards,
Alistair