Date: Sat, 26 Feb 2005 20:43:28 +0800 From: Xin LI <delphij@frontfree.net> To: freebsd-ports@FreeBSD.org Subject: [IDEA] How to represent package version dependencies? Message-ID: <1109421808.10472.17.camel@spirit>
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--=-egNhM+NvtxDZDvg3A5Lh Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Hi, folks, It seems that we have some controllable knobs for ports that is very commonly used, for instance, gcc. We have: USE_GCC=3D3.4 So the system will build gcc 3.4 when necessary. However, it seems that there is no way to represent package version dependencies, for example, a software depends on gal 2.2.4+ to function correctly, we don't have some mechanism to detect this earlier, and the build process bounces at the configure stage. Pros for having version dependencies: - More user friendly. A `make depends', for instance, can tell the user whether there are something that must be upgraded. It's far better than just bouncing from the configure process. - Better package. Since we have the information, package tools can be warned before installing/updating packages, and give useful advise. Cons for having the feature: - Maintenance will need more work. There is no apparent way to determine whether the specified version is accurate (e.g. will lower version work?) - Some more work must be done in the current package tools to make use of the information. My thought is that we add an optional component to the current DEPENDS specifier. The scheme might be: file:package[:least_version] When building package, and least_version is omitted, then the registration will use the version that is installed on the system. Any suggestions? Or is this totally not useful? Thanks in advance! Cheers, --=20 Xin LI <delphij delphij net> http://www.delphij.net/ --=-egNhM+NvtxDZDvg3A5Lh Content-Type: application/pgp-signature; name=signature.asc Content-Description: =?UTF-8?Q?=E8=BF=99=E6=98=AF=E4=BF=A1=E4=BB=B6=E7=9A=84=E6=95=B0?= =?UTF-8?Q?=E5=AD=97=E7=AD=BE=E5=90=8D=E9=83=A8?= =?UTF-8?Q?=E5=88=86?= -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.0 (FreeBSD) iD8DBQBCIG7w/cVsHxFZiIoRAub/AJ9OUfDlQM9CvV94msYvMJdwYol+0QCdHuWN LrnORcxR+wl9uBfWQXWT0DU= =+QJv -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --=-egNhM+NvtxDZDvg3A5Lh--
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