more woes with php 5.2.6

[Ryan Schmidt]

On Aug 1, 2008, at 08:45, Mark Hattam wrote:

>>> The only thing I don't now see in "port installed" is db44 ...  
>>> that was there as well as db46 ... but may have been some legacy  
>>> item that's been superceded, but remained installed and active  
>>> after the (many) port sync and port upgrade outdated sessions.
>>
>> Yes, for example subversion used to depend on db44 and now depends  
>> on db46. db44 would not however have been uninstalled for you. You  
>> would have had to remove it yourself if you wanted it gone using  
>> sudo port uninstall db44.
>
> db46 got installed before I got as far as subversion ...
>
> Powerbook:~ markhattam$ sudo port dependents db46
> apr-util depends on db46
> subversion depends on db46
>
> and chasing back another step
>
> Powerbook:~ markhattam$ sudo port dependents apr-util
> apache2 depends on apr-util
> serf depends on apr-util
> subversion depends on apr-util
>
> And I started off by building Apache2.

Yes, the same upgrade happened to apr-util.


> But how would I tell if db44 (or some other package) is no longer  
> needed though it remains installed and active?

port uninstall db44

If db44 is still required, MacPorts will tell you so and will not  
uninstall db44.

Or you could also use

port dependents db44

If MacPorts says db44 has no dependents then you can uninstall it.


> Lastly, this whole rebuild took nearly a day (including sleep time  
> between the error late last night and the resumption after  
> breakfast this morning. I couldn't have done this on dial-up while  
> on holiday due to the constant but sporadic need for an Internet  
> connection.

You could have saved the distfiles which were in /opt/local/var/ 
macports/distfiles and moved them over to your new clean MacPorts  
installation. If the distfiles were corrupted, MacPorts would notice  
and tell you; that's why portfiles have distfile checksums.


> If I want to install say apache2, why can't it run through and  
> download all the required packages at the outset, then go through  
> and install them one by one in the order it requires? If it takes  
> two hours to configure and build libxml (for instance) before  
> needing and therefore downloading the next package that it needs  
> (gd2 for instance), I can't leave a dial-up connection ($$$) active  
> that long, and most UK ISP's cut you off at two hours anyway. Or is  
> it assumed that all users are on a broadband or other always-on  
> connection?

In the US, unlimited always-on broadband connections are the norm. I  
haven't heard of anyone here using dial-up in years, but if anyone  
did, local phone calls are free in the US. I understand it's not so  
in other parts of the world. Perhaps this part of MacPorts was  
developed by US residents.

Anyway, yes, it could be nice to pre-fetch all distfiles of all  
dependencies before starting to build. Even better would be to spawn  
a new thread so that distfiles could be downloaded while other ports  
are already being built. I don't see a ticket for this but maybe I'm  
searching wrong. I know it has come up on the list multiple times.  
Someone may even have posted a script to at least do the pre-fetching  
part. Patches to MacPorts base to implement this behavior would be  
welcomed.


> But thank you for fixing the various issues that befell me, and by  
> the look of it other users with similar problems installing other  
> packages.