Pkgsrc problems [ was: lang/python24 build problems]

[Hasso Tepper]

Thomas E. Spanjaard wrote:
> Fixed in pkgsrc -current, and possibly 2008Q2 as well? The problem was
> some bluetooth preprocessor directives had a conditional only for
> NetBSD, but we use NetBSD's bluetooth stack as well.

Yeah, which reminds me that IMHO we should discuss _the_ issue with pkgsrc 
as I see it at the moment (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong).

At least some of us agreed that pkgsrc isn't shiniest package management 
system - upgrade is real pain etc. This is not about these technical 
issues. Pkgsrc is IMHO the best option we have at the moment, but ...

AFAICS DragonFly support in pkgsrc have been mostly Joergs' project. 
Thanks to him we have what we have now. But his focus has shifted away 
from DragonFly AFAICS (no problem, it happens all the time with people; 
it's called life, evolution etc) and DragonFly specific issues in pkgsrc 
don't get enough love any more. More specifically:

* Patches sit in NetBSD bugs database too long. Nobody seems to confident 
  enough to commit patches or just don't care enough or patches remain 
  just unnoticed etc. #36978 is good example, but there are others 
  (net-snmp with this fix doesn't build any more, btw, but I'm also afraid 
  that it isn't net-snmp issue now, but perl).

* Even if patches go into pkgsrc, they are not pushed to upstream. While I 
  know there are a lot of people out there who don't think about it as 
  important thing, it's extremely important IMHO.

* Pkgsrc isn't tested enough _before_ freeze and release. The result is 
  that issues is discovered after pkgsrc release and fixes will be 
  available for wider user community in _next_ release (the very same 
  python24 issue is good example). Next release has its' own issues etc.

So, IMHO we need two things:

* Regular builds of pkgsrc HEAD on both our stable and HEAD with info 
  about failures made available for community. I think that many of us 
  (including me) can take a look at logs and try to fix issues. The 
  important point is that we should try to catch as much of bugs as 
  possible _before_ release.

* "Our man/men in pkgsrc" (sry, mr. Greene ;).

There is at least one laternative as well of course - to branch pkgsrc 
(fork isn't correct term here IMHO). So, we could fix our issues in "our 
pkgsrc stable", build our packages from this "branch" etc. While 
recommended by some people, I personally don't like the idea much though.

Opinions? Or more importantly - volunteers?


-- 
Hasso Tepper