June 08, 2016 posted by Kamil Rytarowski

The pkgsrc team has prepared the 50th release of their package management system, with the 2016Q1 version. It's infrequent event, as the 100th release will be held after 50 quarters.

The NetBSD team has prepared series of interviews with the authors. The next one is with Ryo ONODERA, a Japanese developer maintaining large C++ packages.

Hi Ryo, please introduce yourself.

Hi,

I am hobbyist.

I maintain some large C++ packages, however my knowledge about recent C++ is poor.

My current home work is to learn modern C++.

First of all, congratulations on the 50th release of pkgsrc! How do you feel about this anniversary?

I am very glad to commit some changes for this remarkable 50th release.

I feel 50 releases is very long history.

The pkgsrc should be improved for next 100th anniversary.

What are the main benefits of the pkgsrc system?

The pkgsrc helps building from source.

Building from source is interesting and I have learned many things from it. It is worth for experiencing.

I like up-to-date software.

And I believe many people like latest software.

Recently security concerns us.

Sharing the recipe for latest software is getting worth, I believe.

Where and how do you use pkgsrc?

My laptop and home NAS run NetBSD/amd64.

And of course I uses pkgsrc.

And some day-job FreeBSD/amd64 servers also use pkgsrc.

What are the pkgsrc projects you are currently working on?

I am user of Mozilla Firefox (pkgsrc/www/firefox) and LibreOffice (pkgsrc/misc/libreoffice).

I need latest ones. And I will keep them up-to-date.

If you analyze the current state of pkgsrc, which improvements and changes do you wish for the future?

I feel Fortran support is not so powerful. This should be improved.

And Chromium browser should be ported to NetBSD.

If I setup great machine, I will try to do it.

Do you have any practical tips to share with the pkgsrc users?

Good /etc/mk.conf or /usr/pkg/etc/mk.conf improve your pkgsrc experience.

At least,

WRKOBJDIR=/usr/tmp/pkgsrc

and

MASTER_SITE_OVERRIDE=http://ftp.XX.netbsd.org/pub/pkgsrc/distfiles/

should improve your pkgsrc experience.

What's the best way to start contributing to pkgsrc and what needs to be done?

Updating simple package is good start point. For example, Font package or simple C software.

I recommend to get commit bit for pkgsrc-wip.

Committing your idea to the repository is invaluable experience.

Do you plan to participate in the upcoming pkgsrcCon 2016 in Kraków (1-3 July)?

Sadly, I cannot do long distance travel...

If video streaming is provided, I will watch it carefully!

Thank you.

Please use and contribute the pkgsrc!