feature suggestion: instructions for reporting build problems

[Ryan Schmidt]

On Jan 26, 2009, at 16:10, John Joseph Bachir wrote:

> On Mon, Jan 26, 2009 at 3:26 PM, Perry Lee wrote:
>
>> I like the idea of a message, though I'd suggest displaying it  
>> after a broken configure or broken build phase rather than  
>> including it in the output of `port info`.
>
>
> Even better.

This is not bad. There are many software projects that, when e.g.  
their configure script fails, they print a message asking for a bug  
report to be submitted at whatever URL. We could do the same, or  
better, provide a URL to the Guide page explaining how to file a  
ticket properly.

http://guide.macports.org/#project.tickets

> And now that I think of it -- my problem was because I needed a  
> newer Python version - but I'm told Macports doesn't have the  
> ability to have dependencies specify version numbers of ports (so  
> the newer Python was not automatically built). so maybe another  
> part of the message should be "before reporting a problem, be sure  
> that none of the dependencies of this port are outdated".
>
> and then, if possible, list all outdated dependencies...
>
> of course i don't have the time or skills to build any of this  
> myself, but thanks for listening :)

There are many things a user should check before filing a bug, and I  
think it gets unwieldy to have the port command output them all. The  
user should check they have the latest version of Mac OS X, Xcode,  
and MacPorts and that their ports tree is up to date. The user should  
upgrade any outdated ports. The user should ensure there is nothing  
installed in /usr/local and that Fink is not also installed. Rather  
than printing all these to the user when any failure occurs, it would  
be better I think to list it in the Guide section on things to do  
before filing a ticket. Or, since that points to the Problem Hotlist,  
to list these things there.