foo_select(8)

[Weissmann Markus]

On 26 Jul 2007, at 22:58, Ryan Schmidt wrote:

> On Jul 26, 2007, at 08:07, Weissmann Markus wrote:
>
>> I've just submitted a new port 'gcc_select', that'll basically do  
>> the same as Apple's gcc_select(8) but for the C compilers MacPorts  
>> has in stock.
>> There is a small manpage and 'gcc_select -h' also answers some  
>> questions.
>>
>> The real deal behind this tool is, that it can be used for any  
>> kind of software. I'm thinking about the different Python  
>> (Tcl, ..) interpreters, compilers (swi-prolog) etc. we have.
>> So e. g. 'python_select' will allow a user to choose which version  
>> of Python will start when calling 'python' and which manpage will  
>> be opened for 'man python'.
>> To create another foo_select, simply have a look at the gcc_select  
>> Portfile - it's very straight forward.
>>
>> There are currently some unsolved problems (thats why the version  
>> number is 0.1 ...) among them is, that there are no checks if the  
>> user rights are sufficient (tool will then fail with some probably  
>> strange error). You can find the source code (for now) in my  
>> personal MacOSForge repository [1] - if we reach a more stable  
>> state, we should probably move it into the official MacPorts repo.
>
> There is only one MacPorts repository, and your project is  
> currently in your user subdirectory of that repository.
>

yes


> I saw these commits of yours fly by, and this might be interesting  
> to use to select between php4 and php5. Though I haven't yet looked  
> to see exactly how it works / what it does. (Just setting a  
> symlink? Or is there more to it?)
>

no, it is only creating symlinks - the deal is that every tool can  
"register" by simply putting a file with a file list to the config- 
directory of 'foo' (in case of the foo_select); this way foo_select  
does not need to know about all possibilities that exist and also  
does not need to query the port registry or similar actions.


-Markus

---
Markus W. Weissmann
http://www.mweissmann.de/