SHELL environment variable

[Matthew Cottrell]

Thanks for the wrapper suggestion.  I'll check it out.


On Sep 12, 2009, at 6:37 PM, Ryan Schmidt wrote:

>
> On Sep 12, 2009, at 17:26, Matthew Cottrell wrote:
>
>>>> I'd like to add some post-activate code to a Portfile that would  
>>>> amend PATH in a .cshrc or .profile, depending on which shell the  
>>>> user is running.
>>>
>>> Instead of doing that, just print instructions advising the user  
>>> what to do.
>>
>> The Portfile currently prompts the user as you suggest, but I still  
>> get email from novices who stumble.  I figure I'd be doing them and  
>> myself a favor.
>>
>>> It's not customary for ports to modify files in a user's home  
>>> directory.
>>
>> I actually got the idea from the modification to PATH that appeared  
>> in my .cshrc when I installed MacPorts ;-)
>
> Yeah... MacPorts does break its own rule a bit there.
>
> Part of the problem is the user might change his shell later, or one  
> user might be installing software on a Mac for use by multiple  
> users. I concede the former is perhaps not very likely. For the  
> latter, the user needs to be aware that software will not "just  
> work" for those other users -- that something needs to be added to  
> e.g. the .profile for it to work.
>
>
>> ui_msg "
>> 1)
>> **************************************************************************
>> bash-users add the following lines to your ~/.profile or to your  
>> ~/.bashrc
>> **************************************************************************
>>     ARBHOME=${prefix}/share/arb;export ARBHOME
>>     PATH=${prefix}/share/arb/bin:\$PATH
>>     export PATH
>>
>>     enter the following command:
>>     . ~/.profile
>> 2)
>> **************************************************
>> tcsh users add the following lines to your ~/.cshrc
>> **************************************************
>>     setenv ARBHOME ${prefix}/share/arb
>>     setenv PATH ${prefix}/share/arb\:\$PATH
>>
>>     enter the following command:
>>     source ~/.cshrc
>> "
>> }
>
> First thought: are these really necessary? Is there some way the  
> software could be installed so that the user need not manually set  
> these? For example, for the wine port, it wouldn't run right unless  
> DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH was set; to avoid requiring the user to set this  
> manually, I wrote a wrapper script so the user never knows. Read the  
> wine port for more info.
>
> Second thought: if manual setup is the only way, put the setup into  
> a script the user can source from their .profile and install it  
> along with the port. This condenses your instructions down to a  
> single line change to the .profile to source your file; hopefully  
> users will be able to grasp that.
>
>
> P.S: Don't forget to Reply All so your reply goes to the list too,  
> not just to me.
>
>
>

--
Matthew Cottrell
Lewes, DE 19958

http://www.mattcottrell.org