[MacPorts] #45621: unison @2.40.102_2 crashes

[MacPorts]

#45621: unison @2.40.102_2 crashes
---------------------------+--------------------------------
  Reporter:  me@…          |      Owner:  macports-tickets@…
      Type:  defect        |     Status:  reopened
  Priority:  Normal        |  Milestone:
 Component:  ports         |    Version:
Resolution:                |   Keywords:
      Port:  unison ocaml  |
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Comment (by geezel@…):

 I also went through all the exercises described in this ticket. The
 situation of the unison port is very unsatisfactory.
 As a temporary fix I created a local ports tree to compile unison 2.48.3
 against ocaml 4.01, but I'd like to see this fixed in the official tree.

 Replying to [comment:5 ecronin@…]:
 > If you are on Yosemite wiki:howto/InstallingOlderPort for OCaml 4.01 and
 then forcing unison to build from source is the only option.  OCaml was
 already at 4.02 when Yosemite was released, so a macports version built
 with 4.01 has never existed.

 Has there been any good reason for upgrading ocaml to 4.02 that early? As
 pturing has already pointed out, the major Linux distros were still at
 4.01 four months ago, and they still are (at least the stable branches).
 FreeBSD is also at 4.01.


 > For older OS X releases, if you want the default variants you can grab
 unison at 2.40.102_1 from packages.macports.org and install the package.
 Trying to 'port install port @version' does not work, it will always
 install whatever the current latest version in the PortIndex is.

 Why does 'port install port @version' not work? Has this been working in
 the past? (I'm using Macports only since a couple of months.)


 > This has come up in the past when Unison itself is updated and various
 distros update at different paces causing compatibility.  Nobody has
 volunteered to put in the effort to support more than the latest release,
 especially since upstream provides binaries you can download.  CCing mww
 since this is a request for supporting multiple parallel installs of OCaml
 at this point.

 The binaries provided at http://alan.petitepomme.net/unison/assets/ are
 not exhaustive. For example, there is no OS X binary of 2.40.102, which
 was the version I needed when I first tried to use unison on OS X.
 Apparently there has been some effort in the past to address these issues:
 https://trac.macports.org/ticket/35639

 I think this is the way to go, but it seems this never made it into the
 tree. Why?


 > I still think this is invalid from macports standpoint for a
 'nomaintainer' port unless we add multiple OCaml ports in which case I'll
 add variants.

 How would you use variants to maintain multiple versions?
 In the above mentioned ticket it was suggested to use "subports", but I
 was unable to find any documentation on subports.

 >  It works correctly as long as both ends are built with the same OCaml
 release after the _2 revision.

 You cannot rely on these conditions to be satisfied. Quite the opposite:
 in general the remote machine will *not* meet these conditions
 and in general the user of the client machine is not entitled to change
 this.
 (Most, if not all, Linux or FreeBSD machines out there that run *any*
 version of unison will be incompatible with the current MacPorts version.)

 Why not just go the easy route and provide ports ocaml-401, unison-232,
 unison-240 etc. as it's done in FreeBSD, for example?
 I don't see that the older ports require a lot of maintenance.

 Let me know if I can help.

-- 
Ticket URL: <https://trac.macports.org/ticket/45621#comment:9>
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