Conventions when it comes to cron-like launchd items

[Joshua Root]

Adam Byrtek wrote:
> On Sun, Mar 8, 2009 at 19:38, Rainer Müller <raimue at macports.org> wrote:
>> So the port munin could be the node only, and munin +server additionally
>> installs the server. This would be reasonable as the node gets installed
>> more often than the server.
> 
> This was my initial idea, based on the mysql5 port. On the other hand
> the fact that the server was not there had been very confusing when I
> installed MySQL from MacPorts for the first time :)

MySQL 5 is an interesting case because the server variant only creates a
startupitem. Normally something this inexpensive should not warrant a
variant (and causes confusion as you note), but it does cause installing
the port to require root.

> Anyway I think I will go in this direction, as the "server" variant is
> already known - I don't like variants that are used in only one
> package. By the way is there some description of popular global
> variants with explanation of their meaning? This would be very useful
> both for users and developers and would help maintain consistency. I
> have a feeling that there are too many mysterious variants out
> there...

There is _resources/port1.0/variant_descriptions.conf, which should be
used whenever possible.

- Josh