Publicizing MacPorts

[Christopher Jones]

Hi,

> On 24 Apr 2021, at 12:04 pm, Georges Martin <jrjsmrtn at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> Le 22 avr. 2021 à 17:46, Steven Smith <steve.t.smith at gmail.com <mailto:steve.t.smith at gmail.com>> a écrit :
>> 
>> Another reason major news like M1 support must be announced.
> 
> 
> May I ask: how do we *define* "M1 support" in MacPorts? What are the *metrics* used to support that statement?
> 
> - How does the MacPorts base "support the M1"? (I know I had to install it from git then switch to the master branch for other reasons -- not a typical user installation) 

port runs natively on M1 machines, and can build ports natively as well. Also, as far as I am aware the macOS11 pkg installer at 

https://www.macports.org/install.php

natively supports both intel and arm (disclaimer, I always build base from source myself, as I work with the a git checkout of base, so I haven’t actually run the above myself. I also am not lucky enough to have an M1 machine at this time). 

> - Is it when you set buildfromsource to always, build_arch to arm64 and everything run smoothly afterwards? :-)

11_arm64 is support to the same degree as other OSes. The buildbots build for this arch, and when possible distribute binary installation tarballs for it. Always building from source is not required.

> 
> - How does a port "supports the M1"? Is it when it can be built, tested and installed on a M1? Even if it's just compiled as x86_64 and running on Rosetta? Or is it when it can be successfully built, tested and installed as native and/or +universal  on both M1 and Intel?

I believe we consider support to be building natively for arm. 11_x86_64 and 11_arm64 are separate platforms, just like other OSes are. Yes, you can if you want build ports universal, but just like on other OSes (eg. 32/64 bit, or intel/PPC) its port dependent if this works or not.

> 
> - How many ports are building on M1 today? (can a user do a search on architecture on ports.macports.org <http://ports.macports.org/>?) Before installing, how can a user know if a port is building/testing successfully on M1? (can he do a `port info --name --supported-archs` on a port?)

I am not sure if that site can give you an overall number of ports currently working on arm. But you can check the stats for individual ports. Note though, the info there is sometimes a little out of date unfortunately, e.g. there has recently been issues with the site not correctly important build logs from the builders.

> - What if a port is not building on M1 because upstream is not ready yet? (libffi, openjdk16, ghc comes to mind) What if ports are not building because major dependencies are not? (thinking of you, libffi) Is it documented anywhere?

Not systematically/automatically. If someone has submitted a ticket you can search for it, e.g. starting at 

https://trac.macports.org/wiki/BigSurProblems <https://trac.macports.org/wiki/BigSurProblems>

> 
> - How are M1 porting priorities defined? Do we have "M1 priorities" or "M1 call for help" for maintainers? Is there a M1 "Hot Problems" page for users and maintainers like we have for macOS releases?

See above. Priority is mostly based on personal opinion. If someone cares enough about a port they will work on it.

The above is just my thoughts, not an ‘official stance’ in any way….

cheers Chris

> 
> 
> To be clear: I am **not** complaining. I switched to M1 a month and a half ago and decided to contribute to the effort as much as I can: I installed from git, set up buildfromsource to always and build_arch to arm64, then switched to git master. After Ken's call for help on ICU, I set my variants to +universal, recompiled everything that could be (but had to stop because of libffi...).  I'm trying to natively build all the ports I was using on Catalina/x86_64, I'm not there yet (today, py{38,39}-pandas do not build anymore because of OpenBLAS...) and I am not complaining: it's part of the game... :-)
> 
> 
> But: I'm afraid this "marketing" effort could backfire if we don't clearly define what "M1 support" means and provide some metrics to maintainers and users. As well as news sites.
> 
> 
> G.

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