How does dependency checking work?

[mark abney]

Since my last request for help garnered nothing, I think I'll try a
different tack. In particular, how does port check to see whether
dependencies are satisfied? I'm primarily interested in dependencies in
the port file of the form depends_lib bin:somename:someport. Under what
sort of circumstances is a dependency of this sort supposed to be used?
How does port check for this? (e.g. where does it look for somename?
Does somename have to be executable?) I'm afraid I don't really know
tcl, but looking through port suggests to me that this sort of thing is
nor done directly by port? I see looking through the wiki (and from
stdout when installing a port) that there are various phases, e.g.
com.apple.main, com.apple.build, etc, that are being executed. Are
these tcl scripts that are being executed? I'm happy to try to figure
this out on my own, but I can't find any relevant documentation. If
someone has answers to some of these questions, or could even point me
to where I might be able to turn to figure out the answers (I'm willing
to read through code), it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Mark A



       
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