${prefix} as a disk-image (was: #49559: nepomuk-core can't be installed on a case-sensitive system)

[René J.V. Bertin]

On Saturday October 01 2016 23:13:25 Clemens Lang wrote:

Hi,

> People can already do that. People can also mount a different filesystem
> at /opt/local. I just don't think that should be our default setup.

I'm not saying it should be, this is just an idea for something that could be optional. It shouldn't be too difficult to provide as an option in an installer; the same cannot be said about other ways to mount a different filesystem at /opt/local .

> Sparse Bundles have the huge downside that they don't shrink
> automatically. Yes, there are methods to shrink them, but that's extra
> work and extra code.

I thought about that, but just how often does a typical MacPorts installation *shrink*?
Look at it from the opposite side: with a sparse bundle you *can* shrink the size it takes up on shared disk space, something that's much less trivial if you use a dedicated partition for instance.

> Additionally, I'd leave such a fundamental decision to Apple.

I don't see how this would be a fundamental decision that should be taken by Apple. They're supposed not to have any say over MacPorts at all.

> > I also like the idea of being able to take the whole MacPorts tree
> > offline with a simple command. 
> 
> A pretty uncommon use-case.

Because it typically isn't possible? O:-)

R.