/usr/local question

[Daniel J. Luke]

On Apr 4, 2012, at 10:51 AM, Jan Stary wrote:
>> Most packages are
>> developed on linux OSes, where /user/local is quite normal and thus
>> they just consider this the 'right thing to do'... In principle
>> packages should provide options to avoid this, and when they do
>> MacPorts can use them, but not all do.
> 
> Isn't that a task of the port maintainer then
> to patch such a software so that any interference
> with /usr/local can be avoided?

the problem lies with the apple-supplied complier toolchain, there is no 'good' solution to the issue.

(there are several things that might work, or could work, but no one of the volunteers who maintain MacPorts has tried implementing any of them as far as I know)

> I just find it quite extreme to expect the user to not have
> /usr/local around. The reason macports uses /opt/local (if I am
> not wrong) is that macports realizes that people *do* have
> /usr/local around.

I, personally, have had /usr/local around for forever. The issue is that if you don't know it can interfere (and can't diagnose and fix any instances when it does), it's very difficult to help you if/when you have problems.

So, the 'safe' advice we give people is "don't do that"

> Agreed. I try to create ports for thing that I miss.
> But sometimes I just install from the vanilla targzip,
> if only for the intermediate tome before I get to
> creating a macport for it :-)


For me, the biggest reason to buy into always creating ports for things that I need that aren't in macports is the ease with which I can _uninstall_ the software if/when I no longer want it (easy upgrading is a plus too, but of course I started using macports before it could upgrade software ;-) ).

--
Daniel J. Luke                                                                   
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