Portfile clarifications

[Jim Busser]

On 7-Sep-09, at 1:24 AM, Bryan Blackburn wrote:

a lot that was helpful... thanks, but still referencing http://guide.macports.org/#reference.variables 
  ...


Are portpath, filesdir and filespath all pointing to Portfiles and  
patchfiles (to be) downloaded as part of the install and post- 
installation, are these retained locally even after the install? Is it  
likewise for distpath in regard to distfiles?


The Portfile and patch files get downloaded into ${portpath}/$ 
{filedir} = ${portpath}/files or in other words

	${prefix}/var/macports/sources/rsync.macports.org/release/ports/ 
<category>/<portname>/files

whereas distfiles are downloaded into some whole other location

	${sysportpath}/distfiles/${dist_subdir}/

which do or don't need values to be set (they're undefined in the  
guide)?



How does the (undefined) ${portbuildpath} relate to ${portpath} ...  
does it involve a real temp directory "work" being created at the same  
level as (or inside) "files" ?


Inside that 'work" subdirectory, is there a further subdirectory $ 
{worksrcdir} created, does it take a name that is relevant to any  
understanding, and is it in here (= worksrcpath) that the files are  
extracted, but only temporarily?


Extracted files and compiled source (when relevant) gets cleared out  
from the above, and from destroot, after any resulting image (set of  
files) had been relocated, plus all remaining phases of the install  
completed?


"Destroot" -- please accept my apology that this remains confusing  
because the Guide (in 5.2 above) defines it as a full path, and yet  
includes "destroot" recursively within its own path as

destroot ... Value: ${workpath}/destroot

... another subdirectory within an actual "work" subdirectory?
... actually named "destroot" or taking a Portfile value from "name"?
... serving in part to allow port to "see" what goes into ${destroot}$ 
{prefix}/...
... specifies a location within which anything is "built"?

And the "image" that ends up in

	/opt/local/var/macports/software/

... is it a full set of what got extracted, plus anything that got  
built (in cases where there was a build phase), in other words is  
everything that was downloaded in the tarballs (even if not everything  
was immediately to be used, say various resources, docs, shell scripts  
for possible later use by local admin) kept above under

	/opt/local/var/macports/software/

For the actual destroot phase, if (in Debian) the procedure would  
normally be to

	- copy (+- remove extensions) two executables into /usr/bin
	- copy (+- remove extensions) scripts into /usr/share/${name}/bin
	- copy files into
		/usr/share/locale
		/usr/share/man/man1
		/usr/share/doc/${name}
		/usr/share/${name}/<other subdirs>
		/etc/${name}/

do I just do all of the above in

destroot {
    xinstall ...
}

and prepending ${prefix}