Adding configure options when installing a port

[Stephen Langer]

On Jun 16, 2010, at 2:29 PM, Scott Webster wrote:

>>>> I want to build a port with an extra configure option.  Specifically,
>>>> I want to build squid3 with the --enable-useragent-log option.
>> 
>>> Edit the portfile. configure.args-append is a procedure, not a variable.
>>> You can set variables on the command line but you can't call procedures.
>> 
>> Thanks.
>> 
>> It does seem rather a sledgehammer to crack a nut, though.
>> 
> 
> It seems that it would be fairly straightforward to add an empty
> default keyword, eg. configure.extraargs, that would enable this sort
> of thing, but changing the Portfile isn't so hard either.

Allowing changes via keywords would be a lot simpler to explain to third party users.    If a portfile is modified, will the modification be lost when that port is upgraded?  Could the extraargs value be saved and automatically applied to future builds? 

We distribute a program (not via macports or fink) that relies on external libraries that can be installed by macports or fink.  Currently, one of the libraries won't work with our code unless it's built with an argument not provided by the default macports or fink installation.  For my local copy, I placed a modified portfile a local portfile repository, but I'm sure that many of our users will have trouble doing that.  Being able to tell them to run a one-line script (sudo port install thislib --extraargs=--dotherightthing) would be great.

(If there's a simpler way to do what I'm doing, please let me know. I'm fairly new to macports.)

 -- Steve

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