Is there any value to packages? [was Re: Why no binaries?]

[James Sumners]

I was mulling this over last night as I was going to sleep. It seems
to me that the port maintainer could be relied upon to build the
package for his respective port(s). That way, MacPorts doesn't need to
hunt for a build machine.

Although, someone would need to step up and maintain a cross compiler
port for the maintainers. That would make it easier for the port
maintainers to build the packages. If they could do something like
`port package +g4 +g5 +intel`, I'm sure the idea would go over a lot
better.

Of course, there would then need to be functionality built into port
to pull down binary packages instead of source packages.

On 10/26/07, paul beard <paulbeard at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> On 10/25/07, Daniel J. Luke <dluke at geeklair.net> wrote:
> > On Oct 24, 2007, at 10:11 PM, James Sumners wrote:
> > > Why doesn't MacPorts supply binary packages?
> >
> > No one has worked on it recently.
> >
> > If you're interested, I'm sure we would be interested in your help.
> >
>
> Is there a status document that addresses where things stand on efforts like
> this? I haven't been all that successful at building packages within port
> (port pkg foo where foo is something i would rather not build again on a
> second machine). I think I may have resorted to taking the output of "port
> contents" and wrapping it in a tar or zip command, but that doesn't add any
> of the magic of receipts and the rest of the stuff that makes a ports system
> worth using.
>
> if packages, especially meta-packages, could be licked, it would make things
> like gimp and gnome a lot more accessible, as there wouldn't be the huge
> build delay. I'm not a coder of any merit so I can't put my shoulder behind
> it, but it would be of interest to know if the core team sees any value in
> packages (possibly as a component of checkpointing the releases: as of a
> given release, one could be assured that a given subset of essential/popular
> ports could be installed as source or as packages). It may be one of those
> things that is nice to have but lack any support on the core team or in the
> user community.
>
> --
> Paul Beard / www.paulbeard.org/
> <paulbeard at gmail.com/paulbeard at mac.com>
>
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>
>


-- 
James Sumners
http://james.roomfullofmirrors.com/

"All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts
pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it
is magnetic to the corruptible. Such people have a tendency to become
drunk on violence, a condition to which they are quickly addicted."

Missionaria Protectiva, Text QIV (decto)
CH:D 59