Package delivery without XCode

[David Evans]

On 5/18/15 8:01 AM, Craig Treleaven wrote:
> Background - So I was following a discussion on another site about 
> Apple's Aperture being replaced.  Many people are looking for 
> alternatives and there has been essentially no mention of open source 
> alternatives (like DarkTable, LightZone or DigiKam).  Most of these 
> folks are photographers and would never consider installing MacPorts 
> and XCode in order to get an application they might otherwise find 
> interesting.
>
> 1) How much work would it take to have a mode in MacPorts where it 
> only installs pre-compiled packages?  Is the assumption that XCode is 
> present so deeply ingrained that Macports-base would have to be 
> extensively re-designed?
>
> For example, I would think 'port search' would need to be modified to 
> only show the pre-compiled packages (available for that platform) and 
> somehow indicate that only the default variants are available.
>
> Perhaps a fork of Pallet could be so modified?
>
> 2) Are there a worthwhile number of packages that would then be 
> available?  I know my own MythTV ports run into the OpenSSL conflict 
> and therefore aren't available as binaries.  From 
> http://packages.macports.org/ it appears we don't have binary packages 
> for DarktTable or DigiKam (and no port of LightZone).
>
> OTOH, someone posted some information several weeks ago explaining how 
> to determine if that licence conflict really applies or not. (Involves 
> inspecting library linkages, as I recall.)  I get the impression that 
> our current policy is quite conservative and that a number of packages 
> (many?) may actually qualify for binary distribution with some 
> analysis and verification.
>
> Craig
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Hi, Craig --

Have you looked at the various binary packaging targets available with 
MacPorts?

mpkg or mdmg  might provide a mechanism to do what you want.  Just would 
need a way to distribute the results providing the licensing issues 
could be worked out.

See https://guide.macports.org/#using.binaries

Dave