Creating a New Port

[Ryan Schmidt]

On Apr 24, 2013, at 13:38, Jean-François Caron wrote:

> Hi, I've been trying to install/compile this scientific program: http://garfield.web.cern.ch/garfield/ and it is extremely difficult.  The various files have to be downloaded directly from the website and renamed, and parts come pre-compiled and parts need to be compiled.  I am wondering how easy it would be to create a port for this program so that it would "just work" when installed on a Mac.  It unfortunately has dependencies on cernlib, which is not available in macports (fink has it apparently).
> 
> If I'm having trouble compiling it myself, are the chances slim that a functional port could be made? Maybe if a person more used to fortran/c compiling and linking were to try, it would not be so painful.

A MacPorts Portfile is a great way to hide a complicated build process behind an easy-to-use command, but it does still require that someone (a port developer such as perhaps yourself) be able to follow the build instructions and convert them into Tcl commands that MacPorts understands. And certainly you'll first need to make ports for any dependencies.