Date: 16 Feb 2003 10:44:04 +0100 From: Henrik Motakef <henrik.motakef@web.de> To: freebsd-ports@FreeBSD.org Subject: RFC: Common Lisp ports Message-ID: <877kc0v9uj.fsf@interim.henrik-motakef.de>
next in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Hi,
I'd like to create ports for some Common Lisp libraries, and need some
feedback on the best way on how to do them right.
Some background: Currently, there are 3 working Lisp implementations
in the ports tree, lang/cmucl, lang/sbcl and lang/clisp. There is also
lang/gcl, but it's currently broken. There are other Lisps that work
on FreeBSD, so we should be prepared to have ports for them sometime.
(There are, of course, also ports for other dialects of Lisp,
esp. Scheme, Guile and Emacs Lisp. When I'm saying "Lisp" here, I'm
just talking about Common Lisp. Not meant as an offense to Schemers
etc.)
Lisp libraries are usually distributed as source code that one can
simply load into a running Lisp, but they can also be compiled.
Compiled libraries are not portable across Lisp implementations.
Additionally, some libraries don't work with every Lisp implementation.
The question is: How should I handle the fact that libraries can be
compiled for various Lisps?
I see three options:
1) One port for each Lisp, and one for the sources
For example, one would have
textproc/cl-ppcre
textproc/cl-ppcre-cmucl
textproc/cl-ppcre-sbcl
textproc/cl-ppcre-clisp
where "cl-ppcre" only installs the sources and is a dependency of
the other, binary ports/packages.
PRO: Would be easy to implement.
Works nice for binary packages.
CON: Clutters the ports tree with lots of ports.
2) Use WITH_* Makefile variables
Only one port textproc/cl-ppcre, with some variables like
WITH_CMUCL/WITH_SBCL/WITH_CLISP, or a general
WITH_LISP="cmucl clisp", possibly initialized to all currently
installed Lisps that work with the port.
PRO: Can choose sane defaults based on installed Lisps.
Can be configured with make.conf/pkgtools.conf.
CON: Complicated to implement.
One port may install radically different things, possibly
making installing libraries that depend on the port a mess.
3) Adopt Debians common-lisp-controller
Debian handles it's cl-* packages with a program suite called
"common-lisp-controller". A package only puts the sources and a
Makefile equivalent in a well-known directory and calls a program
"register-common-lisp-source" that will compile
them. Administrators can enable/disable compilation on a per
package/per Lisp implementation basis. When the package gets
deinstalled, "unregister-common-lisp-source" removes the binaries.
More information: <http://www.cliki.net/common-lisp-controller>;
PRO: Reuses a working system, probably easy to implement.
CON: Have to port c-l-c first (shouldn't be too hard).
Binaries are built on the user's computer, no binary packages.
Binaries are built in-place, i.e. somewhere in /usr/local/lib,
breaking the rule that "make build" should only write in
$WRKDIR.
Dunno if it's easy to register the compiled files so that e.g.
pkg_info knows about them.
Looks a little overengineered to me.
Any comments?
Thanks
Henrik
To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-ports" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?877kc0v9uj.fsf>