Ticket #14796 (pike): please commit

[Ryan Schmidt]

On Apr 1, 2008, at 04:45, Robert Hinn wrote:

> Hm, do you suggest using and linking only to ports? I find the  
> lib:* dependency quite useful as I'm using the official .dmg  
> package of MySQL from the MySQL homepage instead of the mac port  
> (mainly because I've already been using it before installing  
> MacPorts). Allowing such dependencies offers end users more choice  
> in what software "distribution" to use, as long as libraries are  
> correct.
>
> Sorry if I misunderstood you, just wanted to point out that  
> dependencies against non-ports software can make sense for some  
> people ;-)

However, it is not a design goal of MacPorts to support that.  
MacPorts is designed to use its own ports, not other software,  
wherever possible. There are some exceptions, like Apple's X11 for  
the X ports, Apple's Apache web server for things like PHP. But in  
general, the lib:* dependency style is deprecated and ports should be  
using other ports. See the FAQ:

http://trac.macosforge.org/projects/macports/wiki/ 
FAQ#WhyisMacPortsusingitsownlibraries

and the Guide:

http://guide.macports.org/#reference.dependencies.types