Quote:
Originally Posted by bashrules
Pkgsrc is not perfect. There is always a package or two that does not build. If the problem is in the actual code, I can keep /usr/pkgsrc/ untouched and put my patch into LOCALPATCHES.
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Precisely, in few words you described my same feeling over it:
- on one hand, one may dislike pkgsrc because a) each and every quarterly release breaks some package; b) deprecated software is systematically left there dying out, awaiting for somebody to take maintainership, if ever; c) support outside Tier I platforms is limited, while bootstrapping outside mainstream target (NetBSD, Illumos, macOS, Linux, QNX) is hackish at best and never devoid of unwanted surprises. Long gone are the days where pkgsrc would work almost shamelessly on IRIX, Solaris 10, HP-UX: I'd be surprised to hear about somebody having ccessfully built a pkgsrc-based HP-UX desktop on a PA-RISC workstation like
here (2011)
- on the other hand, I'm under the impression the majority of users can't help falling in love with it: it's simple, fast, powerful, portable, well-documented, hackable, and, most prominently, doesn't get in the way. For me its versatility is a killer feature: being able to use the same package manager on NetBSD and Slackware is something I'd hardly be able to live without now. Same goes for the cross toolchain (used it to build for evbarm64 on 8.99-current before binary packages became a reality). And the interesting thing is that I first moved to NetBSD after having used pkgsrc on Solaris/illumos first and macOS later. Promptly getting security patches on quarterly releases is another thing I endorse. Finally, it must be noted how easy is it to start contributing: the community is very inclusive and welcoming, eager to provide help and walk new committers through