New install, how should I set my macports.conf

Scott Haneda talklists at newgeo.com
Fri Jan 22 16:20:33 PST 2010


For reasons that are too silly to repeat, I am now sitting on a clean 10.6 updated install, with a new MacPorts, and zero ports installed.  I will be installing all my ports new and clean.

In macports.conf I see:
    # CPU architecture to compile for. Defaults to i386 or ppc on Mac OS X 10.5
    # and earlier, depending on the CPU type detected at runtime. On Mac OS X 10.6
    # the default is x86_64 if the CPU supports it, i386 otherwise.
    #build_arch                     i386

And also:
    # Options for Universal Binaries (+universal variant)
    
    # machine architectures
    universal_archs         x86_64 i386
    
This is a MacBook that I use for development, 1.83 Intel Core 2 Duo

I am thinking I want to build UB for everything.  This just seems better in the long run.  I will run into the problems of some ports not being able to support it, and can work to solve those problems, or file tickets to get them solved.  Is this a good or bad idea?

Would I just delete the i386 string from the "universal_archs"?

I add +universal to most oft the ports I installed in the past, which sometimes got me into trouble, as for example, with php5-mcrypt, I had to also rebuild the entire chain that it was dependent on.  

Where do I define that I need not remember to add +universal, and it will be the default, and is that even a good idea?

Why is "build_arch" commented out in the conf above?

Looking for suggestions on the pros and cons.  I am also fine with just leaving things are they are, but it is my understanding that means my builds are only good for this machine or very similar machines.

I am still at a loss, for example, with my memteter Portfile, which does not have a +universal variant.  What would happen under an install of that port, where I add +univeral?  I assume it will just ignore that and build it for this architecture.

But then I look at `port info mtr` and see it has:
Variants:             darwin_10, universal

But looking at the Portfile, these are the only things I see different to me:
configure.args-append --without-gtk

platform darwin 10 {
    configure.env-append LIBS=-lresolv
}

Is that all I have to do, is add in some appended args and will get universal?  I suspect I need to go back to the source, and read through it and see what it takes to build memtester out universal, but I am still at a loss as to what is generating the "Variants: darwin_10, universal" line.

Thanks
-- 
Scott * If you contact me off list replace talklists@ with scott@ * 



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