questions on "test" phase and variant dependency

[Jeremy Lavergne]

> I saw in the guide that there is a "test" phase that can be defined with test.run, test.cmd, test.target. But the information there is quite minimal. How is this intended to be used? It seems to me that it does not run when a port is being installed, only if you do 'port test', and that it does an independent build, not using one that may have been installed already, which I find somewhat surprising. How is the result of the test supposed to be reported after the run?

The post test phase is analogous to `make check`, hence why it uses a build to do the checking.

If the command runs without error, the phase is completed. If there's an error, MacPorts errors out.

> I am trying to make a port that depends on netcdf-fortran. The Fortran mod files installed by netcdf-fortran (as always) are dependent on compiler and even compiler version, so it is necessary for my port and netcdf-fortran to both use the same compiler version, e.g. gcc46. How can this be requested or checked in the Portfile? If they do not match, the configure step will fail in a not particularly informative manner.

Leaving this for others to answer.