upgrading/installing in a background process

[Ryan Schmidt]

On May 5, 2015, at 10:15 AM, René J.V. Bertin wrote:

>> Maybe the output of 'port outdated' should just indicate that the new
>> version was installed, but isn't active?
> 
> That, or there could be `port active outdated` vs. `port installed outdated` commands? As far as I'm concerned, the confusion stems mostly from the fact that a successful `port upgrade outdated` doesn't silence the output from `port outdated`, and one way to solve that is to remove the outdated action and oblige users to specify what they actually want to know.

MacPorts has several commands that print a list of ports, formatted various ways. And they default to different sets of ports, though that default can always be overridden.

"port installed" prints a list formatted to show you information about the installed version of the set of ports. The default set of ports is the set of installed ports.

"port outdated" prints a list formatted to show you information about the difference between the installed version and the current version of the set of ports. The default set of ports is the set of active outdated ports.

"port list" prints a list formatted to show you the current version and path of the set of ports. The default set of ports is all ports.

Would your proposed "port active" command print a list formatted like any of the above? If so, there is no need for a new command; the existing command can be used. For example, when I want to see a list of active ports, I usually want to see it formatted to show information about the installed versions of those ports, so I run "port installed active".

I would really like to combine all three list commands into a single list command that can somehow show all of this information clearly and concisely, to reduce the confusion that some users experience (for example https://trac.macports.org/wiki/FAQ#portlist ).