From owner-freebsd-ports Tue Jul 6 9: 2:38 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-ports@freebsd.org Received: from wopr.caltech.edu (wopr.caltech.edu [131.215.240.222]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id F212B15462; Tue, 6 Jul 1999 09:02:35 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from mph@wopr.caltech.edu) Received: (from mph@localhost) by wopr.caltech.edu (8.9.3/8.9.1) id JAA86111; Tue, 6 Jul 1999 09:02:35 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from mph) Date: Tue, 6 Jul 1999 09:02:35 -0700 From: Matthew Hunt To: jkoshy@FreeBSD.ORG Cc: hutch@psfc.mit.edu, ports@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: TtH Description Correction Request Message-ID: <19990706090235.D85561@wopr.caltech.edu> References: <199907060625.XAA76787@freefall.freebsd.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 0.95.4i In-Reply-To: <199907060625.XAA76787@freefall.freebsd.org>; from jkoshy@FreeBSD.ORG on Mon, Jul 05, 1999 at 11:25:39PM -0700 Sender: owner-freebsd-ports@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org On Mon, Jul 05, 1999 at 11:25:39PM -0700, jkoshy@FreeBSD.ORG wrote: > B) Dependencies are not static. A pseudo-real-life example: > Let us say a user installs `python' from ports/lang/python and > selects a certain set of modules and library wrappers at > installation time. > > If she later wishes to install Zope (python based web software), > then she could discover that her Python installation needed some > specific modules enabled that are not enabled by default. > Uninstalling, recompiling and reinstalling python now becomes > necessary. To make matters worse, suppose the user has already installed other software which depends upon Python. Now, she must either uninstall those ports, uninstall Python, reinstall Python, and reinstall all of the ports that depend on Python, or she has to "pkg_delete -f" python and screw up her system's notion of dependencies, or she has to manually save and restore the appropriate +REQUIRED_BY files, which requires more understanding of the Ports/Packages Collection than we should expect. Sigh. Matt -- Matthew Hunt * Stay close to the Vorlon. http://www.pobox.com/~mph/ * To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-ports" in the body of the message