Date: Tue, 2 May 2000 07:38:58 -0400 From: Will Andrews <andrews@technologist.com> To: Rahul Siddharthan <rsidd@physics.iisc.ernet.in> Cc: Will Andrews <andrews@technologist.com>, Alfred Perlstein <bright@wintelcom.net>, Randy Katz <fastpoint@ccsales.com>, Shawn Barnhart <swb@grasslake.net>, "questions@freebsd.org" <questions@FreeBSD.ORG>, ports@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: stop complaining about x11 please (was: Re: Why does PORTS SUCK so BADLY!?) Message-ID: <20000502073857.A392@argon.blackdawn.com> In-Reply-To: <20000502004233.A3681@physics.iisc.ernet.in>; from rsidd@physics.iisc.ernet.in on Tue, May 02, 2000 at 12:42:33AM %2B0530 References: <009b01bfb389$96546cf0$b8209fc0@marlowe> <20000501101044.F24573@fw.wintelcom.net> <00b901bfb38f$e4625cd0$b8209fc0@marlowe> <20000501105116.B32172@ccsales.com> <20000501113038.I24573@fw.wintelcom.net> <20000501234432.A2998@physics.iisc.ernet.in> <20000501150045.A391@argon.blackdawn.com> <20000502004233.A3681@physics.iisc.ernet.in>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On Tue, May 02, 2000 at 12:42:33AM +0530, Rahul Siddharthan wrote:
> My benchmark would be that if the original tarball configures and
> builds without this dependency, the port should not insist on it
> (there should be some user-choice); but if the original configure
> script refuses to continue, then the dependency should be retrieved
> and built automatically. To take another example, mpeg-lib or aalib
The problem is, if a port uses more dependencies than are registered by the
packaging mechanism, there will be no way to warn the user. That is to say,
if the configure script decides it will build with something just because
it exists on the system (as opposed to if it's explicitly enabled or
disabled by a configure argument), pkg_* will not register that library
and/or runtime dependency AS A DEPENDENCY IN ${PKG_DBDIR}! This means, if,
at some later point the user tries to delete the dependency, they won't get
any safeguards from the pkg_* mechanism. So if a library is deleted; the
program that was linked to it WILL NOT RUN! If a runtime dependency was
deleted, the program may not run or won't run correctly. And so forth.
Which is a big problem in ports (that no one has had time to solve yet).
> in Gimp are optional, but gtk/glib are not. Either there could be a
> PORT_MINIMAL=yes or the user could be prompted with a (y/n) dialogue
> whether such optional packages should be retrieved, or there could
> just be warning messages about missing functionality. I don't know
> how difficult it would be to implement but I feel it would be useful.
This sort of thing has been on my plate to work on for awhile. I believe
Jeremy Lea had something to help accomodate this, but I never saw any code
and/or ideas on implementation from him. Or perhaps I simply don't
remember seeing any. :-)
Respectfully,
--
Will Andrews <andrews@technologist.com>
GCS/E/S @d- s+:+>+:- a--->+++ C++ UB++++ P+ L- E--- W+++ !N !o ?K w---
?O M+ V-- PS+ PE++ Y+ PGP+>+++ t++ 5 X++ R+ tv+ b++>++++ DI+++ D+
G++>+++ e->++++ h! r-->+++ y?
To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?20000502073857.A392>