variant symlinks (was Re: Anybody working on removing sendmail from base?)

[Mike Porter]

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On Saturday 04 October 2003 01:32 pm, Matthew Dillon wrote:

>     Now, reasonably and obviously, one would want to also upgrade all the
>     dependant ports.  Realistically however the process of upgrading
> dependant ports to use the new version of some dependancy can take weeks or
> months depending on the complexity of the ports involved.
>
>     Consider, for example, what happens when one tries to upgrade libpng.
>     Seems simple enough, right?  But there are hundreds of ports which
> depend on libpng, including openoffice.  Suddenly upgrading libpng is not
> so simple.
>
Another example which I just went through was upgrading kde.  I wound up in 
the process having to upgrade my entire Xfree86, and the project took rather 
close to a week, becuase some of the files depended on older versions that 
were no longer available, so I had to manually do some of the work.

>     So we have a classic convenience/space tradeoff here, and I personally
>     far prefer the convenience of being able to upgrade my system without
>     breaking half my ports.

As long as it doesn't break something else, in the process, I would add.  
Breaking something else in the process is most likely not worth any amount of 
convenience.....

mike
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