Dependency Problem of Upgrading Gnuplot: A Possible Bug

[Xin Liu]

I checked the code for the "update" command: if I'm not wrong, the
code lies in macports::upgrade{}. According to the following piece
excerpted from the it:

***
                # library depends is upgraded
                if {[info exists portinfo(depends_lib)]} {
                        foreach i $portinfo(depends_lib) {
                                if {![llength [array get depscache $i]]} {
                                set d [lindex [split $i :] end]
                                        set depscache($i) 1
                                        upgrade $d $i $variationslist
$optionslist depscache
                                }
                        }
                }
***

It does not seem to check the external dependencies at all: all it
does is to extract the port name from strings like "bin:tex:teTeX" and
upgrade the port. It SHOULD have used something like _mportispresent{}
to check whether the external dependencies have been satisfied. Or did
I miss something?

Best
Regards,

Xin Liu

On 7/24/07, Ryan Schmidt <ryandesign at macports.org> wrote:
> On Jul 24, 2007, at 10:44, M A wrote:
>
> > On 7/24/07, Ryan Schmidt wrote:
> >
> >> On Jul 23, 2007, at 21:44, Xin Liu wrote:
> >>
> >> > I've installed MacTex2007 and added /usr/texbin to $binpath in
> >> > macports.conf. Then I've got no problem installing gnuplot, i.e. it
> >> > does not try to install teTeX for me. However, if I invoke "sudo
> >> port
> >> > upgrade gnuplot" (when the gnuplot is already the newest
> >> version), it
> >> > starts to install teTeX. Why would it do this? Is there any
> >> problem in
> >> > the implementation of the "upgrade" command, or did I miss
> >> anything in
> >> > the configuration?
> >>
> >> MacPorts is designed to use its own software, not any other software
> >> you may have installed elsewhere. See the FAQ:
> >>
> >> http://trac.macosforge.org/projects/macports/wiki/
> >> FAQ#WhyisMacPortsusingitsownlibraries
> >
> > Yes, but in the case of something like TeX, it's really kind of silly
> > to force a user to install a rather huge system like teTeX which is,
> > by the way, outdated and no longer being maintained, rather than
> > allowing the user to use a more modern (and complete) distribution
> > such as TeX Live. In fact, the port author, in principle, allows for
> > this by including the library dependency as bin:tex:teTeX. The problem
> > is that the mechanism of extending the path that macports checks to
> > locate binaries (ie changing $binpath in a user's macports.conf) no
> > longer works. It used to work in 1.4.?. Was this a deliberate design
> > decision, or a bug introduced somewhere between the 1.4 and 1.5
> > macports?
>
> I don't know; I'm sending your message back to the mailing list where
> somebody can hopefully answer it.