[MacPorts] #72509: `port dependents` behaviour

[MacPorts]

#72509: `port dependents` behaviour
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 Reporter:  RJVB         |      Owner:  (none)
     Type:  enhancement  |     Status:  new
 Priority:  Normal       |  Milestone:
Component:  base         |    Version:
 Keywords:               |       Port:
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 Currently, `port dependents foo` will list all installed ports that have a
 a hard or runtime dependency on `port:foo`.

 This includes ports that are deactivated.

 That can be confusing *) and lead to not really justified user
 confirmation (think when deactivating `port:foo` because of a build
 conflict; you're not really concerned about the dependencies of inactive
 ports at that time).

 *) I've been modifying ports to depend on a forked, older version of a
 dependency (say `foo-v2`) and confused that those already processed and
 reinstalled continued to show up also under `port dependents foo`. Not a
 big deal maybe, but quite annoying if you're doing this kind of work
 amidst a lot of other things and distraction.

 The output from `port dependents` does not list version or activation
 state information, but I suppose that information is in fact available
 when/where the listing is being generated?
 If so, it shouldn't be too hard to add an option to the procedure in
 question, to make it include or exclude (the default?) inactive ports from
 the listing (and possibly the version and variant information when run in
 verbose mode)?

-- 
Ticket URL: <https://trac.macports.org/ticket/72509>
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