[MacPorts] PortfileRecipes modified

[MacPorts Wiki]

Page "PortfileRecipes" was changed by ryandesign
Diff URL: <https://trac.macports.org/wiki/PortfileRecipes?action=diff&version=119>
Revision 119
Comment: Add another solution for unversioned distfiles using a GET parameter
Changes:
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Index: PortfileRecipes
=========================================================================
--- PortfileRecipes (version: 118)
+++ PortfileRecipes (version: 119)
@@ -320,15 +320,27 @@
 See also the next entry on [#unversioned-distfiles unversioned distfiles].
 
 == Unversioned distfiles == #unversioned-distfiles
-Although they would be wise not to do this, some software developers may distribute their distfile with a filename that does not contain the version number (e.g. example.tar.gz); such a port will have its `distname` specified as ${name} rather than its default ${name}-${version}.
-But when updating the port to a new version, the old version's distfile will get in the way, since it has the same name, and users who had a previous version of the port installed will experience a checksum mismatch.
-To avoid this, you must change `dist_subdir`.
+Although they would be wise not to do this, some software developers may distribute their distfile with a filename (e.g. example.tar.gz) that does not contain the version number; such a port might have its `distname` specified as ${name} rather than the default ${name}-${version}.
+But when updating the port to a new version, the old version's distfile will get in the way, since it has the same name, and users who had a previous version's distfile downloaded (or those who receive it from our mirror servers) will experience a checksum mismatch.
+To avoid this, one easy solution is to change `dist_subdir`.
 By default, `dist_subdir` is ${name}; change it so that it includes a subdirectory named for the version:
 {{{
 dist_subdir   ${name}/${version}
 }}}
-
-Ideally, however, convince the developers to put the version number in their distfile names.
+This works well for ports that have a single distfile or have many distfiles if all distfiles are updated with each version.
+
+Another solution is to keep the default `dist_subdir` but use a `master_sites` URL with a [#fetchwithgetparams dummy GET parameter] to invent a new versioned distfile name. For example if a port named example has its distfile available at https://example.com/downloads/example.tar.gz and you have a Portfile that says:
+{{{
+master_sites        https://example.com/downloads/
+distname            ${name}
+}}}
+you can change it to:
+{{{
+master_sites        https://example.com/downloads/${name}${extract.suffix}?dummy=
+}}}
+leaving `distname` at its default value which includes the `version`. MacPorts will construct the URL e.g. https://example.com/downloads/example.tar.gz?dummy=/example-1.2.3.tar.gz and will save the file to disk as example-1.2.3.tar.gz. Most web servers won't care and will just ignore the dummy parameter.
+
+Ideally, instead of such workarounds, convince the developers to put the version number in their distfile names.
 Any time a distfile is released to their download area, they should consider it to be immutable.
 
 See also the previous entry on [#stealth-updates stealth updates].
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