From owner-freebsd-ports@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Mar 12 23:18:25 2011 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-ports@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D24D2106564A for ; Sat, 12 Mar 2011 23:18:25 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from talon@lpthe.jussieu.fr) Received: from shiva.jussieu.fr (shiva.jussieu.fr [134.157.0.129]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4C5868FC12 for ; Sat, 12 Mar 2011 23:18:24 +0000 (UTC) Received: from parthe.lpthe.jussieu.fr (parthe.lpthe.jussieu.fr [134.157.10.1]) by shiva.jussieu.fr (8.14.4/jtpda-5.4) with ESMTP id p2CNIMP2071271 for ; Sun, 13 Mar 2011 00:18:23 +0100 (CET) X-Ids: 164 Received: from niobe.lpthe.jussieu.fr (niobe.lpthe.jussieu.fr [134.157.10.41]) by parthe.lpthe.jussieu.fr (Postfix) with ESMTP id DDFBB20552 for ; Sun, 13 Mar 2011 00:18:21 +0100 (CET) Received: by niobe.lpthe.jussieu.fr (Postfix, from userid 2005) id 57E0E40C4; Sun, 13 Mar 2011 00:18:26 +0100 (CET) Date: Sun, 13 Mar 2011 00:18:26 +0100 From: Michel Talon To: freebsd-ports@freebsd.org Message-ID: <20110312231826.GA22954@lpthe.jussieu.fr> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.3i X-Miltered: at jchkmail.jussieu.fr with ID 4D7BFF3F.000 by Joe's j-chkmail (http : // j-chkmail dot ensmp dot fr)! X-j-chkmail-Enveloppe: 4D7BFF3F.000/134.157.10.1/parthe.lpthe.jussieu.fr/parthe.lpthe.jussieu.fr/ Subject: Re: Superfluous dependencies X-BeenThere: freebsd-ports@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Porting software to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 12 Mar 2011 23:18:25 -0000 Mark Linimon said: > On Sat, Mar 12, 2011 at 02:12:34PM -0800, Charlie Kester wrote: > > I'm not aware of any tool that will display a similar dependency tree > > for a port *before* it is installed. > > http://portsmon.freebsd.org/portdependencytree.py > > Note: it's running a live set of queries on the tree, so it's slow. Wonderful tool! Using it i have found a nice illustration of the title of the thread by looking at the dependencies generated by the ports math/maxima. If you run it you will find *tons* of dependecies. However, being a regular user of maxima, that i compile myself on my machine using cmucl i know that maxima has exactly *one* dependency, a lisp system. Taking the example of cmucl one needs only a previous binary version of cmucl, because it is written in lisp, and the base C compiler to produce the executable "lisp". It should not be much different with sbcl, except if one foolishly adjoins unnecessary optional software. When having a lisp, one can in fact compile maxima without even using make, but make simplifies the job. It is not *necessary* to have optional gnuplot (which one may or may not desire), and even less to have (*) graphical front ends like xmaxima or wxmaxima. The teTeX dependency is completely superfluous. I mention this example because it is characteristic of a tendency of many FreeBSD ports to add a kitchen sink of superfluous dependencies which render upgrades and so on complicated. (*) most serious users of CAS software i know (maple, etc.) always type their code in a window using a standard editor, and copy-paste it in another window running maple, maxima, etc. Using the GUI toolkits is almost always a considerable loss of time. -- Michel TALON