Subject: Same software in pkg and in userland : which one to use ?
To:, NetBSD-current <>
From: Xavier HUMBERT <>
List: tech-pkg
Date: 01/13/2002 21:43:36
Dear Lords of the Holy CVS,

Could you please answer a question that I ask to myself for a while :

Sometimes, the same software is present as well in userland and in

The most obvious example is Postfix. I saw a coupl of other examples
that I don't recall right now.

For Postfix :

current release=allsrc :
 # grep DEF_MAIL_VERSION /usr/src/gnu/dist/postfix/src/global/mail_version.h
 #define DEF_MAIL_VERSION        "Postfix-20010228-pl08"
current release=pkgsrc :
 # grep DISTNAME /usr/pkgsrc/mail/postfix/Makefile 
 DISTNAME=       postfix-20010228-pl08

Today, they are exactly the same.

Which one is updated most frequently ? Which one is recommended to use ?
What about the patches ?

Postfix is not a random example, since Wietse never releases
experimental code, and what he calls beta are well tested, stable
versions, which it is reasonable to use on a prod machine.

My guess is that

- if you use -current, and compile it frequently, prefer userland version
- if you use -release, prefer pkgsrc version.

Is this a rule ? Does a risk exist that one build both versions, and
uses the one he does *not* intend to use (probably a PATH issue), with
perhaps wrong, mismatched config files ?

Thanks for clarification

Xav - "What is your quesssst ?"