Upgrading gettext breaks many ports

[Piet van Oostrum]

>>>>> Vincent Lefevre <vincent-opdarw at vinc17.org> (VL) wrote:

>VL> On 2006-09-25 17:06:02 -0400, David Glasser wrote:
>>> Maybe portfiles can contain a flag that says "rebuild my dependents
>>> when you install me"?

>VL> This may be nice in some cases, but won't solve the real problem,
>VL> which is that a library should never be removed by an upgrade
>VL> (replaced by a compatible version, with the same name OK, but
>VL> not removed just because there exists a different, incompatible
>VL> version). Indeed, for various reasons (e.g. bugs), rebuilding
>VL> some ports may fail. Ditto for other programs compiled/installed
>VL> directly by the user (i.e. not via MacPorts).

>VL> Some files could be flagged to prevent their removal (while still
>VL> allowing their replacement), except when the removal is explicitly
>VL> requested by the user.

I think the dependency systems should be much more sophisticated.
Preferably with automatic garbage collection to prevent libraries from
disappearing when they are still needed. I think MacPorts would be a good
candidate for NiX: <http://www.cs.uu.nl/wiki/Trace/Nix> and if people are
interested I can see if we can start a research project to develop a NiX
version of MacPorts.
-- 
Piet van Oostrum <piet at cs.uu.nl>
URL: http://www.cs.uu.nl/~piet [PGP 8DAE142BE17999C4]
Private email: piet at vanoostrum.org