Policy concerning ports that can update/install themselves

[Ryan Schmidt]

On Nov 25, 2008, at 04:39, Emmanuel Hainry wrote:

> I am wondering what is our policy concerning programs that are able
> either to auto update (many graphical programs have such a feature)  
> and
> programs that propose to install add-ons like py-setuptools,
> rb-rubygems...
>
> Those are able to write things inside ${prefix} and to put there files
> that are not managed by Macports and hence may cause problems for
> subsequent port installs/uninstall but also write things outside
> ${prefix}, including /usr/.
>
> I ask this question because of one of texlive's new feature: a  
> graphical
> interface that manages the configuration but also gives the user the
> ability to add packages. My choice would be to disable such an evil
> feature as port is supposed to do the work,

Yes, I'd recommend disabling any auto-update feature in the software.

I've even seen ports removed from MacPorts entirely once they grow  
their own auto-update features. One of the main reasons I use  
MacPorts is to make it easy to update the software; if it has its own  
easy auto-update mechanism there may no longer be a benefit of having  
the software in MacPorts.

> but I see that ports for
> such feature in python and ruby exist...

I don't understand?