Items exist in ports, but not as packages.

[Paul Richards]

Hi,
I've been trying to install a few packages using 'pkg_add -r' but I
have found that there are a few which only exist as ports, and not
packages. The main one which I am missing is 'vtk-tcl'.

Is it generally the case that the precompiled packages are not always
available when the ports are? According to freshports.org I should be
able to use 'pkg_add -r' for vtk-tcl.

Unfortunately I am only allowed (by the girlfriend) to play with
FreeBSD on an old 1 gig disk and so I don't have the space to install
ports. Are there any other sources of precompiled packages which I
could use? Is there a way to install just the portion of the ports
tree which I need?



--
Paul Richards

[Bill Moran]

Paul Richards <paul.richards@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi,
> I've been trying to install a few packages using 'pkg_add -r' but I
> have found that there are a few which only exist as ports, and not
> packages. The main one which I am missing is 'vtk-tcl'.
>
> Is it generally the case that the precompiled packages are not always
> available when the ports are? According to freshports.org I should be
> able to use 'pkg_add -r' for vtk-tcl.

Pretty much. There's no guarantee that all ports are available as
packages.

> Unfortunately I am only allowed (by the girlfriend) to play with
> FreeBSD on an old 1 gig disk and so I don't have the space to install
> ports. Are there any other sources of precompiled packages which I
> could use? Is there a way to install just the portion of the ports
> tree which I need?

You can work with an incomplete ports tree sometimes. The ports tree
is heavily dependent on the fact that make can jump to different
directories to install dependencies and such ... that being said,
I have been able to use partial ports trees in the past. It's a
bit of a gamble.

--
Bill Moran
Potential Technologies
[url]http://www.potentialtech.com[/url]

[Randy Pratt]

On Mon, 21 Feb 2005 10:50:12 +0000
Paul Richards <paul.richards@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi,
> I've been trying to install a few packages using 'pkg_add -r' but I
> have found that there are a few which only exist as ports, and not
> packages. The main one which I am missing is 'vtk-tcl'.
>
> Is it generally the case that the precompiled packages are not always
> available when the ports are? According to freshports.org I should be
> able to use 'pkg_add -r' for vtk-tcl.
>
> Unfortunately I am only allowed (by the girlfriend) to play with
> FreeBSD on an old 1 gig disk and so I don't have the space to install
> ports. Are there any other sources of precompiled packages which I
> could use? Is there a way to install just the portion of the ports
> tree which I need?

Portcheckout might be useful in some fashion.

/usr/ports/devel/portcheckout/pkg-descr reads:

The portcheckout(1) reads the /usr/ports/INDEX file and checks-out
a given port and its dependencies. This makes it easy to use the
ports system without having a full and up-to-date /usr/ports tree.

A typical use would be to connect to the Internet, possibly download
a new INDEX and ports upgrade kit, download a port skeleton with
portcheckout(1), and then build the port.

I was thinking that some possibilities exist here for building a
custom ports tree. I also have some older machines that take a
long time to build INDEX as well as limited disk space.

YMMV. I'm sure that the possibilities for shooting one's self
the foot also exists ;-)

Randy
--

[Bill Moran]

Paul Richards <paul.richards@gmail.com> wrote:

> So I should try just untarring the relevant bit of the ports tree, and
> just copy in extra bits whenever I find it failing.. ? Is that a
> reasonable way to approach this?

It's a PITA, and it can be time-consuming, but it's worked for me.

> On Mon, 21 Feb 2005 09:00:46 -0500, Bill Moran <wmoran@potentialtech.com> wrote:

> > Paul Richards <paul.richards@gmail.com> wrote:

> > > Hi,
> > > I've been trying to install a few packages using 'pkg_add -r' but I
> > > have found that there are a few which only exist as ports, and not
> > > packages. The main one which I am missing is 'vtk-tcl'.
> > >
> > > Is it generally the case that the precompiled packages are not always
> > > available when the ports are? According to freshports.org I should be
> > > able to use 'pkg_add -r' for vtk-tcl.

> >
> > Pretty much. There's no guarantee that all ports are available as
> > packages.
> >

> > > Unfortunately I am only allowed (by the girlfriend) to play with
> > > FreeBSD on an old 1 gig disk and so I don't have the space to install
> > > ports. Are there any other sources of precompiled packages which I
> > > could use? Is there a way to install just the portion of the ports
> > > tree which I need?

> >
> > You can work with an incomplete ports tree sometimes. The ports tree
> > is heavily dependent on the fact that make can jump to different
> > directories to install dependencies and such ... that being said,
> > I have been able to use partial ports trees in the past. It's a
> > bit of a gamble.
> >
> > --
> > Bill Moran
> > Potential Technologies
> > [url]http://www.potentialtech.com[/url]
> >

>
>
> --
> Paul Richards
> [url]http://www.pauldoo.net[/url]

--
Bill Moran
Potential Technologies
[url]http://www.potentialtech.com[/url]

[Kris Kennaway]

On Mon, Feb 21, 2005 at 10:50:12AM +0000, Paul Richards wrote:

> Hi,
> I've been trying to install a few packages using 'pkg_add -r' but I
> have found that there are a few which only exist as ports, and not
> packages. The main one which I am missing is 'vtk-tcl'.
>
> Is it generally the case that the precompiled packages are not always
> available when the ports are? According to freshports.org I should be
> able to use 'pkg_add -r' for vtk-tcl.

[url]http://pointyhat.freebsd.org[/url] shows that this port is currently broken.

Kris

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[Paul Richards]

Well I hit a few compile errors which I had to tweak the source code
to fix. My ports tree is the stock one which comes on the 5.3-RELEASE
cds and so perhaps it's a little old.

There's no harm in having to tweak source every now and again. :) It
builds character.


On Mon, 21 Feb 2005 11:32:06 -0800, Kris Kennaway <kris@obsecurity.org> wrote:

> On Mon, Feb 21, 2005 at 10:50:12AM +0000, Paul Richards wrote:

> > Hi,
> > I've been trying to install a few packages using 'pkg_add -r' but I
> > have found that there are a few which only exist as ports, and not
> > packages. The main one which I am missing is 'vtk-tcl'.
> >
> > Is it generally the case that the precompiled packages are not always
> > available when the ports are? According to freshports.org I should be
> > able to use 'pkg_add -r' for vtk-tcl.

>
> [url]http://pointyhat.freebsd.org[/url] shows that this port is currently broken.
>
> Kris
>
>
>

--
Paul Richards
[url]http://www.pauldoo.net[/url]