[csw-maintainers] the future of pkg-get...

[Sebastian Kayser]

* Ben Walton <bwalton at opencsw.org> wrote:
> Excerpts from Juraj Lutter's message of Thu Sep 08 07:49:34 -0400 2011:
> 
> > I would go with alternatives. It's elegant and "systematic"
> > approach. 
> 
> Having thought more about this, I decided that in order to provide the
> best possible user experience, alternatives was better.  I've made the
> adjustments required to see two packages generated, each containing an
> alternative.
> 
> pkg_get_stub/CSWpkgget -> /opt/csw/bin/pkg-get.deprecationnotice
> pkgget_deprecated/CSWpkgget-deprecated -> /opt/csw/bin/pkg-get.deprecated
> 
> [...]
>
> I'd appreciate verification of the updated packages, which are
> available at: http://buildfarm.opencsw.org/experimental.html#pkgget

Tested in a global zone, installation and switching of alternatives
worked fine. Good approach and nice work. Thoughts:

1) Add some quickstart comments to the deprecation notice? The
referenced pkgutil(1) man page doesn't provide a quickstart as such.
Example:

"Please use pkgutil(1) instead. The CSWpkgutil package should
have been installed at the same time as this CSWpkgget update.
Setting the desired catalog in /etc/opt/csw/pkgutil.conf should
suffice to get you started. Most commands that you are used to
from pkg-get are also available with pkgutil (plus many more).
For usage examples plus reference information see pkgutil(1).

    PAGER='less +/EXAMPLES' man pkgutil
    PAGER='less +/OPTIONS' man pkgutil
    PAGER='less +/CONFIGURATION' man pkgutil

"

Feel free to adapt or reword at will. :)

2) Also add instructions on how to remove CSWpkgget once you've settled
with pkgutil. (pkgrm CSWpkgget; pkgrm CSWpkgget-deprecated)?

3) Has anyone tested the pkg-get upgrade with local zones? What happens
if someone doesn't have alternatives installed yet?

4) Generate an example pkgutil.conf based on settings from pkg-get.conf
and point the user to it? Most pkg-get settings should easily be
mappable to equivalent pkgutil settings.

Sebastian