Re: How to install a file outside of /usr/pkg ($PREFIX)

[David Holland <dholland-pkgtech%netbsd.org@localhost>]

On Thu, Jan 15, 2015 at 07:58:10PM +0000, Taylor R Campbell wrote:
 >    Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 19:49:25 +0000
 >    From: David Holland <dholland-pkgtech%netbsd.org@localhost>
 > 
 >    On Thu, Jan 15, 2015 at 10:08:22AM +0100, Martin Husemann wrote:
 >     > >   the base system doesn't have a way to configure a secondary autoload path
 >     > 
 >     > There could be a sysctl to set an alternative path, so pkgsrc then could
 >     > use $PREFIX/kmodules/$arch/$kernel_build_version/modules/... or similar
 >     > and the user would just add:
 >     > 
 >     > kern.module.alt_root="/usr/pkg/kmodules"
 >     > 
 >     > to /etc/sysctl.conf.
 > 
 >    We shouldn't accumulate multiple places in base that specify the
 >    location of pkgsrc packages.
 > 
 > This isn't a place in base that specifies the location of pkgsrc
 > packages.  It's a place in base that specifies the location of kernel
 > modules.

Having to change forty obscure places in base if you want to use /opt
instead of /usr/pkg makes it effectively impossible to actually do
that. If we want to support this generality (I have, TBH, never really
thought it a good idea, but the community consensus is that we do) we
need to make it workable.

I know, we don't have forty, but if we keep adding more arbitrarily
we'll very quickly get to "too many".

 > I don't have one unique place for pkgsrc packages: some go in
 > /pkg/2015Q1, some go in /pkg/2014Q4, some go in
 > /home/riastradh/pkgsrc/devel/pkg, &c.  Nor do I want my kernel to be
 > built assuming there exists a unique place for pkgsrc packages.

Great. I was afraid someone was going to say that. What would satisfy
you? Keep in mind that there are already a fair number of places in
base that ought to be able to reference packages and currently either
have an adhoc scheme or can't do it:

   - the default $PATH
   - login.conf
   - man.conf
   - pkgpath.conf
   - fontconfig
   - kernel modules
   - X server modules
   - PAM modules
   - rc scripts
   - periodic scripts
   - ssh config
   - openssl config

not to mention the general problem of extensions or plugins for
applications in base.

-- 
David A. Holland
dholland%netbsd.org@localhost