Gubuntu (Portage in Ubuntu) :)

[John Ruschmeyer]

On Thu, 2005-03-24 at 08:08 -0800, Pat Martin wrote:
> I don't know how many people here are familiar with FreeBSD, but 
> wouldn't it be nice to have something like what FreeBSD does with 
> reference to ports. I know Gentoo is trying to copy that but they don't 
> quite get the idea. See with FreeBSD you can install the package or 
> install it from ports (compiling). Also when you have installed from 
> ports if you want to remove the software you can use the package manger 
> because it installs it as a package! I have thought it would make more 
> sense to have a package system like most linux systems have but then 
> have a support of a ports like system that compiles things (so you can 
> customize the package) but still installs the software as a package.

As a sometimes NetBSD user who has also run FreeBSD at various times, I
will admit that I like the idea of being able to build/customize
packages, but still have them integrated into the package manager. That
said, though, I don't think that means we need to bring Portage into
Ubuntu.

It seems to me that much of the desired functionality is already there
between 'apt-get -b' and 'apt-build'. The latter needs to be installed
as it is not part of a default install, but seems to do much of what one
would want.

My other personal favorite is 'checkinstall' for those pieces of
software which are only available in source form as a .tar.gz. For those
who have never used checkinstall, you configure and build the
application normally; instead of running 'make install', though, you run
'checkinstall' which builds a .deb from the installation process and
installs that using dpkg. The  resulting package can then be manipulated
with the regular debian package tools.

<<<john>>>