handle only subports install files

[Ryan Schmidt]

On Mar 19, 2012, at 13:34, Ryan Schmidt wrote:

>> The other is to let users
>> ask for the module installed for some default/recommended python version
>> -- this part will start working once all the python24 ports are unified
>> and the dependencies updated.
> 
> Yes, and that's valuable... but sometimes, like in Bradley's mysql-connector-cpp, or in my VillainousStyle, there might not be a particular port that it would be appropriate to call the default.

The problem with the stub ports is they serve no purpose after they're installed; they just clog up the "port installed" list and make it harder to later uninstall software. Users might "sudo port install py-foo", which will automatically install py2X-foo (which they might not even notice if they're not paying close attention). Then later the user might expect "sudo port uninstall py-foo" to uninstall it, but it won't uninstall py2X-foo. Or the user might "sudo port uninstall py2X-foo" which will fail saying it's required by py-foo.

It might be useful to have a "default_subport" directive. When a user tries to install a port that has subports, if default_subport is set, MacPorts installs that subport instead. Otherwise, MacPorts tells the user to select one of the subports to install.