From owner-freebsd-ports@FreeBSD.ORG  Sun Mar 28 03:22:45 2004
Return-Path: <owner-freebsd-ports@FreeBSD.ORG>
Delivered-To: freebsd-ports@freebsd.org
Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125])
	by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6296416A4CE
	for <freebsd-ports@FreeBSD.org>; Sun, 28 Mar 2004 03:22:45 -0800 (PST)
Received: from smtp2.netcologne.de (smtp2.netcologne.de [194.8.194.218])
	by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0590943D1F
	for <freebsd-ports@FreeBSD.org>; Sun, 28 Mar 2004 03:22:45 -0800 (PST)
	(envelope-from tmseck-lists@netcologne.de)
Received: from laurel.tmseck.homedns.org (xdsl-213-196-212-240.netcologne.de
	[213.196.212.240])
	by smtp2.netcologne.de (Postfix) with SMTP id 1F05C3A1C2
	for <freebsd-ports@FreeBSD.org>;
	Sun, 28 Mar 2004 13:22:43 +0200 (MEST)
Received: (qmail 650 invoked by uid 1001); 28 Mar 2004 11:22:50 -0000
Date: Sun, 28 Mar 2004 13:22:28 +0200
From: Thomas-Martin Seck <tmseck-lists@netcologne.de>
To: Pav Lucistnik <pav@FreeBSD.org>
Message-ID: <20040328112228.GA593@laurel.tmseck.homedns.org>
References: <20040327200136.31711.qmail@laurel.tmseck.homedns.org>
	<1080436501.75008.5.camel@hood.oook.cz>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-15
Content-Disposition: inline
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
In-Reply-To: <1080436501.75008.5.camel@hood.oook.cz>
User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.1i
Organization: private site in Germany
X-PGP-KeyID: DF46EE05
X-PGP-Fingerprint: A38F AE66 6B11 6EB9 5D1A  B67D 2444 2FE1 DF46 EE05
X-Attribution: tms
cc: freebsd-ports@FreeBSD.org
Subject: Re: treating OPTIONS
X-BeenThere: freebsd-ports@freebsd.org
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1
Precedence: list
List-Id: Porting software to FreeBSD <freebsd-ports.freebsd.org>
List-Unsubscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-ports>,
	<mailto:freebsd-ports-request@freebsd.org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-ports>
List-Post: <mailto:freebsd-ports@freebsd.org>
List-Help: <mailto:freebsd-ports-request@freebsd.org?subject=help>
List-Subscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-ports>,
	<mailto:freebsd-ports-request@freebsd.org?subject=subscribe>
X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 28 Mar 2004 11:22:45 -0000

* Pav Lucistnik (pav@FreeBSD.org):

> V so, 27. 03. 2004 v 21:01, Thomas-Martin Seck pí¨e:
> 
> > * SADA Kenji <sada@freebsd.org> [gmane.os.freebsd.devel.ports]:
> > 
> > > .if exists(${LOCALBASE}/lib/libldap.so)
> > > WITH_LDAP=      yes
> > > OPTIONS+=       LDAP "Support for LDAP queries" on
> > > .else
> > > OPTIONS+=       LDAP "Support for LDAP queries" off
> > > .endif
> > 
> > Please do not do this. IMHO, ports that autotune themselves are a bad
> > idea and abusing OPTIONS for this is even worse. If you - as the
> > maintainer - decide that LDAP support is optional, default the port to
> > not include it. Period. If the user wants LDAP she can always say so
> > herself, either via the commandline or via 'make config'.
> 
> Why not? This is a common practice that port autodetects optional
> dependencies and automatically enable/disable them.

Unfortunately, yes. I consider it a bad practice. Why? Because most if
not all maintainers who implement this do not do it correctly, i.e. they
do not provide means to override the autodetection. I stumbled over this
when I tested squid's LDAP integration and thus had to install
openldap-client in my build environment. When I installed GPG there to
check signed distfiles, GPG meant it should depend on openldap-client,
too.  And there is no means to turn this off. There are a lot of other
examples in the tree. No, I did not write a PR yet.

Autodetection is not bad as such, but it needs to be overridable and it
should not be allowed to mess with OPTIONS.