Prevent removal of configured files after Portfile change

[Emmanuel Hainry]

On 09 Jul 2007, at 14:46, Simon Ruderich wrote:

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> Ryan Schmidt wrote:
>> I think you're saying that you have a port that installs a  
>> configuration
>> file, and that you've then changed the configuration file, and  
>> when you
>> upgrade the port, your changes to the configuration file are lost.  
>> The
>> solution is for the port to install a *sample* configuration file,  
>> and
>> for the user to manually copy the sample to the real configuration  
>> file
>> name when configuring. See the apache2 portfile's  
>> httpd.conf.sample for
>> an example.
>
> Thanks for your answer, but I meant something else.
> When I'm working on a new Portfile I often have to run for example the
> "port -d configure" command very often, because some libraries are not
> found and I have to experiment with the options (for configure).
> But every time I change the Portfile it removes the old extracted data
> and starts it all again. The same occurs with the "port -d build"  
> command.
> So my question is how can I prevent the removal of the files which  
> were
> extracted in the port's "work" directory.
>

When I have to tweak with the configure arguments or build  
environment, I do that manually instead of relying on port: going  
inside the build dir and trying configure, make, even make install  
(with special prefix)  in order to get a working process. Only after  
that do I write the Portfile and try trace mode to check for  
dependencies. There is no use in writing a portfile for something you  
are not sure will compile... Unless if you are able to guess  
everything in two tries and write patchfiles directly.

Emmanuel