path: dependency for files NOT in macports

[Ryan Schmidt]

On Dec 11, 2008, at 01:10, Jeremy Huddleston wrote:

> Is there a way for me to do something like:
>
> path:lib/pkgconfig/x11.pc:xorg-libX11
>
> but have that dependency satisfied by /usr/X11/lib/pkgconfig/x11.pc ?

Hmm.

In path:-style dependencies, you specify the absolute path to the  
file you require. The path:-style dependency is for when you know  
exactly the path to the file you want, but there are multiple ports  
that can provide it and you don't care which one. If you specify a  
path that is not absolute (does not begin with a slash), ${prefix} is  
prepended, as a convenience. See the _pathtest procedure here:

http://trac.macports.org/browser/trunk/base/src/macports1.0/macports.tcl

bin:-style dependencies check for a binary anywhere in $PATH (not the  
user's $PATH, but the $PATH that's set while MacPorts is running,  
which is configured by the binpath variable in macports.conf). See  
the _bintest procedure in the same tcl file above.

lib:-style dependencies check for a library anywhere in various  
library directories. See the _libtest procedure.

If you want to depend on a particular pkgconfig file but don't care  
whether X11 or MacPorts provides it, we may need (I can't believe I'm  
saying this) a new pkgconfig:-style of dependency that searches the  
various pkgconfig directories.

Or perhaps you can instead depend on a binary or a library.