Ports and their dependencies (run deps and also versioning questions)

[Rainer Müller]

Tabitha McNerney wrote:
> The MacPorts documentation says there are three types of dependencies: 
> build, library and run. In the example above of Xft2, we see build and 
> library dependencies listed out on the command line.  I have yet to run 
> across a port that also say it has run dependencies. Are there any 
> example of such ports? I just want to make sure that I am parsing the 
> output correctly so a test example would be helpful.

There are lots of them, do some grep:
   find $(port dir MacPorts)/../../ -type f -name Portfile \
         -exec grep -H depends_run {} \;

> Also, on a related note, let's say we run this command, whereby we 
> specify the precise version of Xft2 (2.1.12_0):
> 
>     $ port deps Xft2 @2.1.12_0

@version is ignored for port deps.

port deps takes infos from PortIndex only, so it may not always be accurate.

[...]
> Is this purely a matter of the active port (Xft2) will only successfully 
> install (and capable of being activated) based on whatever versions are 
> of its (library, build, run) dependencies at the moment it is installed?

Dependencies in MacPorts are not on a specific version of a port, just 
on a port being installed and active - regardless of variants and version.

Rainer