Re: OS X packaging is an embarrassment

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From: Luke Kanies
Subject: Re: OS X packaging is an embarrassment
Date: 23:53 on 21 May 2006
On Sun, 21 May 2006, Peter da Silva wrote:

> Have you looked at doing "make package" instead of "make install"?

Yeah, but that sucks just as much for my purposes.  I have a package name,
something like "openssh"; on any other platform, just that name is enough to
do just about everything I need, and basically every operation is a single
step, although sometimes I need to specify a file to operate on (e.g., Sun
boxes require a source for the package).

For FreeBSD, I have to convert that package name to a port name, and then I
have to cd into the stupid port directory and then I have to run "make
package".  "make package" is not significantly better than "make install"
for the purposes of automation, which is to say, introspection and
interaction with the computer.

Oh, and because I happen to have INTERACTIVE and UNAME set in my
environment for my own use, ports don't actually work at all; took me for
freaking ever to figure that one out, but it's an easy fix.

> Have you looked at "portupgrade"?

Yeah, and that basically works fine, once I've converted the package name to
a port name, and once I know that I actually need to upgrade.  That's not
the hard part.

Again, I'm sure this is great for people who like having their own
synchronous conversations with computers.  I don't work like that, and
FreeBSD is easily twice as difficult as anything else out there as a result,
even when I have to hunt the stupid packages down myself.

Why go to all that effort to make things "easy" if it's not easy to hand off
to a computer?  It's stupid.

-- 
"They called me mad, and I called them mad, and damn them, they
outvoted me."
  -- Nathaniel Lee on being consigned to a mental institution,
circa 17th c.
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Luke Kanies | http://reductivelabs.com | http://madstop.com

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