Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2012 16:40:52 +0200 From: Marcus von Appen <mva@FreeBSD.org> To: freebsd-ports@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Port system "problems" Message-ID: <20120626164052.Horde.R787EruWis5P6cn0zpHWwKA@webmail.df.eu> In-Reply-To: <4FE9AB85.3070106@infracaninophile.co.uk> References: <4FE8E4A4.9070507@gmail.com> <20120626065732.GH41054@ithaqua.etoilebsd.net> <20120626092645.Horde.HytQbVNNcXdP6WQ1aMtjoMA@webmail.df.eu> <4FE96BA0.6040005@infracaninophile.co.uk> <4FE97008.2060501@netfence.it> <4FE97AE1.9080109@infracaninophile.co.uk> <4FE9817C.7020905@netfence.it> <4FE99200.7050107@infracaninophile.co.uk> <20120626130715.Horde.eb3fPtjz9kRP6ZfjA7sSFoA@webmail.df.eu> <4FE9AB85.3070106@infracaninophile.co.uk>
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Matthew Seaman <m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk>: > On 26/06/2012 12:07, Marcus von Appen wrote: >>> Sub-ports should be much more efficient, as there's a lot of the work >>> involved in installing which is a one-time thing when installing port >>> plus some collection of sub-ports. > >> How does that look like in detail? Are there any concepts on about >> how it is supposed to work, what the implications are, and so forth? > > Please understand that a lot of this stuff exists only in various > people's heads and is subject to arbitrary change as ideas evolve. > Other parts are more-or-less documented; some is already under > development and may or may not require various degrees of revision in > the light of experience. I understand that quite well, but I fear that we miss to document it in the long-term. When I started fiddling around with bsd.port.mk in my early days, it sometimes was a pain to figure out, why code XYZ is in there and at which point of time it is triggered for exactly what purpose. Yes, I could have bugged those, who know, but I'd rather see that written down somewhere, so others can start faster with less nagging (which includes me, too, as someone to get started with writing things down :-). Hence I would love to see some docs on the bigger things that are on the doorstep, so that learning and understanding the overall system is less time consuming. Plus, a documentation (draft) in e.g. the Wiki allows a broader feedback and sharing of ideas without moving back and forth in the mailing list history. [long exaplanation of how the system is supposed to work] From what I understand, the whole magic happens in step 7-9. The port builds as usual, installs itself in a fake root (stagedir) and packages are created based on the relative paths, PORTEXAMPLES/DOCS, ... entries or plist placeholders or whatever. The maintainers are - if I got that right - completely off the hook with modifying their ports to split them in some way or another, correct? Do you mind to put your explanation into the Wiki (maybe using the StageDir page, since this would better explain what the purpose of StageDir is)? Cheers Marcus
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