multiple mac-ports installations and cleaning the hard drive...

[Ryan Schmidt]

On Feb 10, 2008, at 22:44, Esteban Barahona wrote:

> El feb 10, 2551 BE, a las 22:13, Ryan Schmidt escribió:
>
>> On Feb 10, 2008, at 21:16, Esteban Barahona wrote:
>>
>>> finally the port command funtioned, I tried installing GIMP but  
>>> there was a lot of dependancies missing (I have to learn to use  
>>> autotools for this to work... but that's for another day). But  
>>> I'm not asking for help with this... it will eventually work...  
>>> somehow...
>>>
>>> What I'm asking is to standarize a bit the use of directories  
>>> that are used by macports,
>>
>> What's nonstandard? I'm not even sure what directories you're  
>> talking about. There is of course the standard that ports should  
>> install binary files into ${prefix}/bin, libraries into ${prefix}/ 
>> lib, applications into /Applications/MacPorts, and so forth.
>
> Ah... I didn't know of that behaviour. Maybe what I was thinking  
> was more on a way to make all this functionality "visible" to  
> "users" (an interface)... so that ports can be tested by more  
> people. This is the "users" list; but in this project (I guess)  
> most users are actually developers...

What would you like to be more visible? I'm not sure I understand.  
Software needs to be installed somewhere; most Unix software (which  
is a large portion of what MacPorts installs) installs to standard  
directories, such as many of those defined by the Filesystem  
Hierarchy Standard:

http://www.pathname.com/fhs/

For the double-clickable Mac software installed by MacPorts, the  
Apple-standard location is /Applications, so MacPorts creates a  
directory there that it can own and installs apps into that.

For any port foo, you can see where it installed its files by using:

port contents foo

>>> so that it can be deleted easily.
>>
>> Instructions for deleting MacPorts are in the wiki:
>>
>> http://trac.macports.org/projects/macports/wiki/ 
>> FAQ#HowdoIremoveoruninstallMacPorts
>>
>>> Also, is there a way to install macports and its ports as a non- 
>>> root user?
>>
>> Yes! Some ports may not work this way because few people test it  
>> this way. But many ports will work this way.
>>
>> When you ./configure --prefix=... --with-install-user=... --with- 
>> install-group=...
>
> Thanks.
>
>>> does this apps use some form of sandboxing or jails?
>>
>> Jails no, sandboxing yes. During the destroot phase, port contents  
>> are installed to a sandbox. Once that succeeds, it's copied to the  
>> right place. Ports might install things outside of ${prefix} but  
>> if they do, port will print a warning so that you will know.
>
> What's &(prefix)? Is it a way to automate some form of "macports  
> root directory"?

${prefix} is the variable in MacPorts portfiles that represents the  
prefix into which MacPorts was installed. The usual location is /opt/ 
local. The binary installers for MacPorts always install into the / 
opt/local prefix. If you want a different prefix, you can compile  
MacPorts yourself.

>>> Also, is there a frontend of macports that allows easy installing  
>>> and unistalling of apps?
>>
>> Yes, there are several. Some cost money, some don't.
>>
>> http://trac.macports.org/projects/macports/wiki/ 
>> FAQ#WherecanIfindaGUIfrontendforMacPorts
>
> thanks; I will test the free ones.
>
>>> This is to clean the hard drive, because some versions of ports  
>>> (a form of directory based versioning may also help) may be  
>>> installed multiple times because they don't work. Also, the  
>>> redundancy of directories may create issues if a port used them  
>>> (how to know which version to use). I'm aware that there is a way  
>>> to delete all ports and macports, but what if there's the need of  
>>> only tracking versions so that they can be deleted one by one?
>>
>> I'm not sure what you're talking about exactly... are you asking  
>> about simultaneous installation of different versions of a port?  
>> like, say, installing apach 2.2.6 and 2.2.8 at the same time? If  
>> so, that's not possible. Well, you can have them "installed", in  
>> MacPorts terms, but only one of them can be "active".
>
> This is better than what I expected! I like this behaviour. If this  
> can be used with what I think &(prefix) does, then I will test this  
> behaviour (and if possible code a front end).

You're welcome to code your own front-end, but consider that we  
already have three listed at the above URL, and that your time might  
be better spent contributing to one of those existing projects.