--pretend & --fetch-all options

[Ryan Schmidt]

On Feb 17, 2007, at 00:49, mel wrote:

> 1) Is there a 'pretend' option for port, whereby when I do port -- 
> pretend install xfce4,  it will list down all the dependencies and  
> packages that will be downloaded and installed?

I'm not aware of any such option.

> 2) Is it possible to do parallel fetches of packages? I.e. when  
> installing xfce4 for example, other required packages are  
> downloaded while the current ones are compiled.

I don't think so.

> 3) Is there a list of mirrors (nearest to my location) which I can  
> choose and set in the config file?

MacPorts doesn't host the files, so there are no mirrors to  
configure. That is, MacPorts hosts the portfiles, which are small  
text files and are all served from a single master repository; there  
are no mirrors of it. The software archives themselves are downloaded  
from wherever the developer stores them. Some services, like  
SourceForge, have mirrors, and in MacPorts 1.3.2, there is an order  
of mirrors which are checked, but in 1.4, MacPorts will use the new  
SourceForge automatic mirror-choosing system which picks the best  
mirror for your location. Hopefully 1.4 will be released soon.