Uninstalling ports & meaning of install variants

[Ryan Schmidt]

On Mar 23, 2008, at 20:46, istojic at gmail.com wrote:

> Forgive me for my ignorance, but I seem to have misunderstood how  
> macports works.
>
> My first question is how to uninstall a port once installed.  I ran  
> port uninstall on several ports, but it seems that all of the  
> related files and directories were left behind.

To uninstall a port foo, type "sudo port uninstall foo".

There is a bug where the files will not be properly uninstalled if  
you specify the case of the port name incorrectly. For example, if  
you install the port ImageMagick, but then say "sudo port uninstall  
imagemagick" (instead of "sudo port uninstall ImageMagick") the files  
will remain.

> Secondly, when performing an install and including variants (i.e.  
> port install php5 +mysql5 +apache2), macports seems to install full  
> versions of the variants, as opposed to just including the  
> necessary modifications to php.ini.  Am I interpreting this correctly?

I'm not sure I understand the question exactly...

"sudo port install php5" installs a basic command-line version of  
php5 with features most users will want. "sudo port install php5  
+apache2" installs command-line and apache2 versions of php5. "sudo  
port install php5 +apache2 +fastcgi +mysql5" installs command-line  
and apache2 and fastcgi versions of php5 which also include mysql5  
support. None of the variants of the php5 port modify your php.ini,  
but there's also nothing that needs to be done to the php.ini to for  
example activate mysql5 support. It's not like on Windows where you  
need to load a separate DLL. When you select the +mysql5 variant,  
mysql5 support is simply built into the php5 library and/or binary.  
Does that explain it?