GSoC - Dynamic Libraries

[Jordan Schneider]

Regarding Google Summer of Code,

The past few weeks I've been reading the MacPorts and Tcl guides as well as browsing through the MacPorts source. I've been interested in taking on the Summer of Code project that would deal with implementing the rev-upgrade command as laid out in the ideas page. I had a few questions about this command, as well as some other functionality I wanted to implement.

- Will the rev-upgrade command be called on all dependents any time a dynamic library is upgraded? Or will this be left for the user to do and figure out themselves?

- The ticket #17473 mentions a "poision_version" that will force dependents to be rebuilt if the installed version <= poision version. Will the scanner proposed in the project be used mainly to help maintainers determine the "poision_version" for their port or is it intended for users to fix their broken ports due to the linker errors, or will the "poision_version" become obsolete due to this scanner?

Personally, I think it would be best that whenever a dynamic library is upgraded (or even installed, in case the library was force uninstalled), this check is run and then the user will be prompted to rebuild their existing dependents if linker errors have been detected. Additionally, the rev-upgrade command should be available for a user to manually initiate this scan.

As for the other functionality I would like to implement...

I've recently discovered the packaging features that MacPorts comes with. Currently employed in the IT department at my university, I realize how useful this feature can be for wide-scale deployment. However, I noticed that the packaging system currently does not install dynamic libraries if a port requires them. Would it be acceptable to implement this, and maybe improve the packaging system as a whole in addition to the dynamic library scanner?

I would really like to work on MacPorts for the Summer of Code, so I appreciate any feedback.

Thanks,

Jordan Schneider
University of Michigan

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