Ports recommending other ports

[Bradley Giesbrecht]

On Feb 12, 2009, at 4:24 PM, Jordan K. Hubbard wrote:

>
> On Feb 12, 2009, at 3:00 PM, Bradley Giesbrecht wrote:
>
>>
>> On Feb 12, 2009, at 2:44 PM, Jordan K. Hubbard wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> On Feb 12, 2009, at 12:42 PM, Perry Lee wrote:
>>>
>>>> `make config` displays a menu from which you can select build  
>>>> options (sorta like MacPorts' variants).  `make config install`  
>>>> shows the menu then starts the installation right after.
>>>
>>> "config" is already pretty close to "configure", which MacPorts  
>>> already exposes as a discrete step (and I don't believe FreeBSD  
>>> ports does) - perhaps this could be called "customize" or  
>>> "custom"?  Then you could say things like:  "port custom build" or  
>>> "port custom install" and get a customization screen of some sort  
>>> which lets you select from the available variants, also showing  
>>> you (through checked items in the menu) which variants were  
>>> already on by default.  That would be pretty cool, and fairly easy  
>>> to whip up by adding a curses-using extension to the ui_*  
>>> procedures (ui_menu perhaps) and the requisite glue to support the  
>>> new "custom" target.
>>>
>>> Sounds like a great intern project.  Got any? :-)
>>
>> And you could preclude selecting incompatible variants by turning  
>> them off, making them un-selectable.
>
> Yep!
>
>> You might also have the variant "description" if any and the  
>> proposed "recommendations" message.
>
> That would be the description line of the menu item, e.g.
>
> [  ] mysql		Enable MySQL support for the connector function.
> [  ] universal	Build Universal Binaries
> [X] SSL		Support SSL connections

Thanks for the ascii. Let me borrow it.

<some port> variants
[  ] mysql		Enable MySQL support for the connector function.
[  ] universal	Build Universal Binaries
[X] SSL		Support SSL connections
Other port that work well with <some port>
[  ]<Some port admin>	 HTML interface to manage <someport>


But now, if you do a build on <Some port admin> should you use "menu  
config", as I think it's called on gentoo, after the first port run,  
on the checked "Other ports that work well with <some port>"?

And possibly descend into some ongoing hell?

Maybe a:
[   ] Continue to build selected ports
[   ] I'm done for now

dialog before proceeding to additional port installs.

I don't know how macports handles upgrades with respect to etc file  
changes but  gentoo has a nice "etc-update" program that allows you  
replace, merge or ignore etc config files. This CAN be important. But  
gentoo portage is also managing the "world" and thankfully we have  
Apple taking care of basics.

I mean, merging etc files remotely can be hair raising. Especially  
when gentoo will upgrade everyFREAKINGthing if you don't tell it not  
to and there are etc updates for like 30 files from fstab on.
Who wants to recompile gcc for every minor update?
And have it go wrong?
Remotely?

That said, I love gentoo but moved to freebsd so I would have a "base"  
that wasn't so fragile. But gentoo has many nice things about it.

Everything I will ever say will seem like child's play to some but I  
frequently hear on this list things like "I've never used FreeBSD  
Ports or I'm unfamiliar with Gentoo ebuild" so I'm just sharing what  
little I know.

I love Macs and I love macports! Sad to say I will be retiring my last  
Beige G3 running macos9 very soon. Good news is, it's being replaced  
with Leopard and MacPorts on a G5. Sad Yay! Boy did I get off target.


//Brad