{ darwin any } ports getting reinstalled after OS upgrade

[Christopher Jones]

> On 27 Sep 2023, at 12:32 pm, Ryan Schmidt <ryandesign at macports.org> wrote:
> 
> On Sep 27, 2023, at 06:09, Christopher Jones wrote:
>> 
>> That just means they are *supported* on any drawn version. Each version still have its own build.
> 
> But that's just what "any" means: they build identically on any OS version. That's why only one single archive gets produced for these ports by the build system. When MacPorts on any OS version installs such a port, they all grab and untar the same file from the server. 

I had no idea we supported single tarballs for multiple OS versions. 

I must say, the distinction between

platforms { darwin any }

and

platforms {darwin >= 11}

which *does* result in specific tarballs for each OS is a bit too subtle for my tastes. I presume it’s the present of ‘any’ which is important here ?

Is the logic behind what all the various options we can now use with platforms documented somewhere ?

cheers Chris

> 
> Nils is right in pointing out that there should be no need to reinstall those ports when upgrading the OS, but nobody has written any code to make that happen yet. For now, MacPorts will consider any port to need to be reinstalled if it was installed on a different OS version, even if that port is marked "any". 
> 
>> b.t.w. When upgrading to a new major OS version, you anyway should follow the migration instructions, which involves manually removing all ports anyway.
> 
> We do recommend that, but the piecemeal method Nils is using is also viable.