Newbie Port Creator Questions

[Weissmann Markus]

Hi Jonathan,

On 02.09.2007, at 22:35, Jonathan Strine wrote:

> All,
>
> I am working on creating ports for a few applications.  I have  
> created and submitted my first one just yesterday (libelf-0.8.9).   
> I am now working on my second (dynamips-0.2.7), but have a few  
> questions I'm hoping someone can answer (not all relating to just  
> dynamips-0.2.7).
>
> 1)  I have successfully created a variant of dynamips using pcap.   
> The process was rather simple.  However, I am debating the creation  
> of a third variant.  A third party developer has created a source  
> code patch that extends a certain function of dynamips in a useful  
> way.  Is it appropriate to include such a third party modification  
> as a variant to a port?
>

Absolutely. If you find it useful and no is bashing you for that  
(e.g. because it breaks ports that depend on it), go ahead!


> 2)  In the case above, the third party patch file is written to be  
> applied from the directory above the source code (I think this  
> would be called the work directory) and not from inside the  
> dynamips-0.2.7 directory created when the tarball is extracted.   
> The best I can figure is that the patching phase does apply the  
> patch while in this source directory (dynamips-0.2.7) and not from  
> the work directory.  It is possible to make it apply the patch from  
> the work directory so that I do not have to modify the third party  
> patch file for this variant?
>

you could either modify the patch-directory via 'patch.dir $ 
{worksrcpath}/foo/bar/' or just create a new patch via diffing the  
original and the patches sources from the base dir;


> 3)  The third party patch is licensed under the GPLv2 license.  Are  
> there any general concerns that I should worry about in either case  
> where I use the patch file as is or in the case where I modify it?
>

No problems for us. It'll only hit the people who link against the  
new product. We will happily distribute GPLed code (as long as port  
itself is not mixed with it).


> 4)  If I cannot patch from the work directory, is it considered OK  
> to modify the third party patch file to support patching from  
> inside the dynamips-0.2.7 directory?
>

yes, sure; GPLed code may be modified and distributed by us (see above).


> 5)  What is the best practice to make sure that during all the  
> steps I am only referencing libraries and dependencies from the  
> macports system and not accidentally compiling against pre- 
> installed system libraries?  I have run "port -d install foo" and  
> read through the output, but I want to double check that I am not  
> missing anything.
>

It currently may be broke, but we do have 'trace' mode which can be  
activated with the '-t' switch. It'll tell you about all ports that  
your port touches during its build.
For checking after you build it, I recommend a simple 'find' command  
like
#> find work/destroot -type f | xargs otool -L 2>&1 | sort -u
That'll tell you all libs that the files in destroot link against.


Regards,

-Markus

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


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