randomly bumping things to require perl 5.30 vs 5.28 requires everyone to have both installed ...

[Jason Liu]

Would it be possible to sort of split the difference? i.e. not _just_ have
one single perl5 port and get rid of all the individual point releases, but
rather to add perl5 as a sort of "metapackage" that is essentially the same
as perl5.30. I guess metapackage isn't the right word, either. In reality
more like, it's the same package as perl5.30, but simply with a more
generic name that maps to whatever specific release has been blessed as the
MacPorts default perl. So, these ports would all exist:


   - perl5 <= the "metapackage", and is actually the same port as perl5.30,
   perl5.32, or whatever is deemed to be the current MacPorts default perl.
   - perl5.30
   - perl5.28
   - perl5.26
   - ...

So if a particular port is okay with blindly using a version of perl that
tracks with the latest MacPorts default perl, they can use perl5. If a port
breaks when the MacPorts default perl gets changed, then the port could
still revert back to specifying a specific version of perl, by simply
changing the perl5 to perl5.28.

-- 
Jason Liu


On Mon, Jun 22, 2020 at 11:21 PM Ryan Schmidt <ryandesign at macports.org>
wrote:

> I've just realized this discussion has been to the old list address from
> macosforge. Please always use the new list addresses at lists.macports.org
> .
>
>
> On Jun 22, 2020, at 14:34, Daniel J. Luke wrote:
>
> > We should just have one perl5 port that tracks the current release.
>
> You say this every year (or at least often).
>
> Are you volunteering to be the one to ensure that every port that uses
> perl is compatible with the new perl release when it comes out? Without
> someone to do that, blindly upgrading everything from say perl 5.28 to 5.30
> will likely break ports.
>
> Do you remember perl 5.26? It broke a lot of ports, requiring a lot of
> fixes like this to be added:
> https://github.com/macports/macports-ports/commit/454eb2b0608266ab7bdf51a82d690be0f97610fe
>
> The strategy currently being employed by those volunteers who are
> maintaining the perl ports is to keep everything defaulted to 5.28 for now,
> add 5.30 ports and fix problems in them as they're found, and once
> everything is building then switch the default to 5.30. This seems sensible
> to me.
>
>
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