[MacPorts] #60044: gpsd: python34 variant depends on nonexistent py34-serial port

[MacPorts]

#60044: gpsd: python34 variant depends on nonexistent py34-serial port
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  Reporter:  ryandesign       |      Owner:  michaelld
      Type:  defect           |     Status:  assigned
  Priority:  Normal           |  Milestone:
 Component:  ports            |    Version:  2.6.2
Resolution:                   |   Keywords:
      Port:  gpsd, py-serial  |
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Comment (by ryandesign):

 Replying to [comment:3 fhgwright]:
 > If it's just about distfile mirroring, why is it paying attention to
 dependencies at all?  With the possible exception of fetch dependencies
 (if they even exist), dependencies should be completely irrelevant for
 what's essentially a version of "port fetch".

 The buildbot uses MacPorts base to do the work, and I guess MacPorts base
 ensures that a port's dependencies exist before doing any of the phases.
 And yes, there is such a thing as a fetch dependency (`depends_fetch`).

 > Indeed providing *all* variants would be problematic, though I think
 I've seen isolated cases of more than one.  Criteria for inclusion might
 be based on popularity of the variant, time required to build from source,
 and size of the binary archive.  It would make sense to boost the priority
 of anything that can't be built from source for an upgrade without manual
 intervention, such as anything involving the dreaded libunwind-headers, or
 poppler, or the ld64 stuff that Ken's been talking about.

 I don't think we have any of the data that would be required to do any of
 the above, except for variant installation statistics which are available
 on ports.macports.org but only for those very few users who have opted in
 to send us their stats.

 > And "gratuitous universality" makes precompiled +universal binaries a
 lot more important than they really ought to be.

 If a port requires its dependencies to be universal (either by forcing its
 own universal variant on or by requiring a 32-bit build on a 64-bit
 system) then, since the buildbot is using MacPorts to do the building,
 MacPorts would first install the dependencies universal, and those
 universal archives would get uploaded to the packages server so that you
 could have them. See also #35897.

-- 
Ticket URL: <https://trac.macports.org/ticket/60044#comment:4>
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