Installing EMACS

[danb35]

Weird, the docs say very clearly *not* to install applications in a jail since that will corrupt the package database.

[citation needed]

Can I even *see* the system logs from a jail?

Sure, if you mount /var/log as storage to the jail.

 

[David Dyer-Bennet]

Huh, response to my feature request says I *can* install it directly (though the details given don't work).

https://bugs.freenas.org/issues/12897

 

[David Dyer-Bennet]

[citation needed]

Section 13.2.2, "Warning

do not use the pkg_add command in a FreeNAS® jail as it will cause inconsistencies in your package management database."

 

[danb35]

That's correct. Use pkg instead. pkg_add is deprecated and will mess up your database.

 

[solarisguy]

[----] emacs is a utility, not an application [----]

I am sorry, Emacs is the way of life :D

 

[rsquared]

I am sorry, Emacs is the way of life :D

s/Emacs/vim/g

/me ducks and runs

 

[solarisguy]

@rsquared, you meant vi ? :D

 

[JDCynical]

While installing a package to the base of FreeNAS isn't something one should do, the idea was to use Emacs to view the logs on the machine. So why not just forward the syslog to a collector and use $FOO to view them there?

 

[pirateghost]

While installing a package to the base of FreeNAS isn't something one should do, the idea was to use Emacs to view the logs on the machine. So why not just forward the syslog to a collector and use $FOO to view them there?

Or even mount the logs as storage for a jail and use anything you like....I don't understand the want for modifying the appliance

 

[solarisguy]

Gals and Guys, David had said that he worked on Solaris, and it is natural that people arrange their new environments like the old ones, so the experience stays the same.

P.S.
I would get a FreeBSD installation equivalent to the FreeNAS version I am running, and try to compile Emacs in such a way that I could transfer it to FreeNAS

 

[danb35]

I don't understand the want for modifying the appliance

No doubt he's used to running an actual server and having certain tools available. It isn't the FreeNAS way, but if he has experience elsewhere this doesn't strike me as a particularly bizarre desire. Nonetheless, using a jail is of course the correct answer.

@David Dyer-Bennet, to expand a little on my previous answer, FreeBSD had a change a while back in package managers. pkg_add was a tool to work with the old system, while pkg is the command for the new system. The section you quoted from the manual was saying not to use the old system, because it would mess up the package database for the new system. Inside a new jail, these commands will get emacs installed for you:

Code:

pkg update
pkg upgrade
pkg install emacs-nox11

...then mount /var/log as storage to that jail under whatever mountpoint you want to place it.

 

[David Dyer-Bennet]

dabb35, thanks for saying that explicitly. I was was starting to think that's what had been meant, but the way I read it at first didn't make clear that the old and new systems were what was being distinguished.

 

[David Dyer-Bennet]

I am sorry, Emacs is the way of life :D

Yes, yes it is. As I said above, it's been my primary editor since 1981, when I ran RMS's ITS TECO-based EMACS on a TOPS-20 system via the Incompatibility Package (ITS was MIT's "Incompatible Timesharing System", which ran on PDP-10 hardware same as TOPS-10 and TOPS-20). And it works in my command lines as well as editor windows, so my finger just take it more and more for granted.