Re: modifying package.xml at install time

# cox@idecnet.com / 2003-10-02 18:53:54 +0200: > Thursday, October 2, 2003, 5:01:12 PM, Roman Neuhauser wrote: > > I'm working on the FreeBSD ports of PEAR packages, and one thing > > I'm struggling with while trying to create a makeport pear(1) subcommand > > is lack of consistency in paths (I've already tackled this topic here). > > Umm, are those ports similar to rpm or any package manager utility? > (sorry I don't know anything about it). Perhaps makes sense to > introduce the creation of FreeBSD ports inside the pear installer itself. > > Read about the ideas about "binary" packages creation and distributing > at: > http://cvs.php.net/cvs.php/php-src/pear/docs/rfc01_PEAR_pecl-binaries.txt ports are similar to srpms. unlike {,s}rpms, debs, etc, ports build on make. at the heart of the system is a central makefile included by the individual ports' Makefiles. this file takes care of maintaining dependencies, and doing all the magic. a port usually consists of: * Makefile, which, in the easier cases, is just a few (dozens) variable assignments (like distribution sites) * distinfo, file containing md5 checksum of the tarball * pkg-plist, file containing filepaths installed by the port * pkg-descr, file containing a short description of the port the ports tree is usually installed in /usr/ports, with two-level hierarchy under it: <category>/<port>; PEAR for example is in /usr/ports/devel/pear-PEAR. when you want to install the port, you just cd to the directory, and type "make install". the system takes care of the dependencies (on a pristine system, the command above would fetch, compile, and install apache, php, etc). so I guess the answer is they're something else than what you had in mind. now, what the makeport subcommand is supposed to do is not creating a tarball, but creating the above files from package.xml and a few templates so that they don't have to be created manually for each PEAR package, because the job is simple but boring. -- If you cc me or remove the list(s) completely I'll most likely ignore your message. see http://www.eyrie.org./~eagle/faqs/questions.html