port management practices

[Brian]

Jason C. Wells wrote:
> I don't.
>
> It's too much work. I don't update ports for the duration of a major 
> release's life.  What ever ports came out for 6.3 (that's when I quit 
> trying to manage ports) are typically what I am running.  When 7.1 is 
> released (I don't run x.0 releases) I will reinstall ports based on a 
> homegrown script and a couple text files.
>
> My response is brief but I'll tell you I have tried everything. There 
> was much suffering that went into my ports management method. I'm much 
> happier now. I spend more time using my computers and less time 
> maintaining them.
>
> The problem is non-trivial.  I am curious how -ports folks maintain 
> their sanity.  That's a phenomena worth studying.
>
> Regards,
> Jason
>
>
I suppose this is relative to the number of ports installed, but it 
really isnt that difficult under normal circumstances.  If you have one 
that needs to be treated differently, then ask why does it indeed to be 
treated differently and is it worth it.  Over the last few years, I have 
had very few problems where portsnap followed by portupgrade didn't 
work.   The dependency problems are the toughest, the last one of those 
I had I fixed with portmanager.  For me, a goal worth pursuing is to 
make it easier, so you don't need to be a longterm user to figure out 
how to easily update system and/or ports, it should be a little easier 
AND apparent; even Microsoft and Redhat tell you when there are updates 
to be applied.

Brian