Maverics/Xcode 5 proposal: no more xcode-select --install

[Rainer Müller]

On 2013-10-29 21:47, Paul Bennett wrote:
> Xcode 5 installs command-line shims for the toolchain. These invoke the relevant actual tools in the SDK directories. So it's possible to install many (most?) ports without 'xcode-select --install'. What that command does do is put in place copies of the tools, plus other files that aren't covered by the shims.

Actually, the shims already exist before you install Xcode. On the first
run without Xcode installed, they give you the same dialog that is
triggered by `xcode-select --install`.

In any case, we would have to support both configurations. Can we
guarantee to get binary identical files for both? Otherwise this would
be yet another factor to respect in the generation of binary archives.

Can you move Xcode.app with the SDK around? I did a quick test and it
seems like he SDK path returned by xcrun is an empty string in this case...

> Take tuntaposx. The sole reason it requires 'xcode-select --install' is because its Makefiles hard-code the path /System/Library/Frameworks/Kernel.framework/Headers. If the port instead used `xcrun --show-sdk-path` as a prefix, the port would build without xcode-select.
> 
> So why require users to jump take the extra step on this one OS release? 
> Why not bite the bullet now and scrap the dependency?

Nobody proposed this before. :-)

However, I don't see where installing the Command Line Tools is that
much of a hindrance. By using `xcode-select --install` it got way easier
than it was before in my opinion.

For me it feels absolutely unnatural not to use headers and libraries
from /usr/lib and /usr/include. But maybe that's just the new world
where the old Unix concepts are weakened...

> A first step to seeing whether this is viable might be to create a buildbot that hasn't had 'xcode-select --install' run, to see what the size of the problem is.

We do not even have a regular buildbot for Mavericks yet. But if someone
wants to set up such a configuration, go ahead!

Rainer