macports fetch suggestion

[Anders F Björklund]

Joshua Root wrote:

>>> Just saying that if you're going to call the archives packages, might as well simplify things ?
>> 
>> Again I think it's only ever not simple when you talk about it. :) It's already simple for me. I just don't see the distinctions you make between archives and packages. I'll use either word at random depending on what pops into my head first.
> 
> Packages contain all the metadata needed for a package manager (which is
> much simpler than a ports system) to install them and track
> dependencies, without needing the system that was used to build the
> source. Archives don't offer that. Simple.

It's get trickier with the FreeBSD-style archives, that do
include enough of +METADATA text files to work as both...

The MacPorts archives have some of that metadata, but not
all of it and still rely on (Tcl) parsing the +PORTFILE.

But it's doable, to add the missing part and a pkg(1) ?

There was some interest for the GSoC, but no takers...

--anders