/opt/local/macports/software

[Chris Jones]

On 19/01/15 09:34, Ryan Schmidt wrote:
> Please Reply All so that the discussion stays on the mailing list.
>
>> On Jan 19, 2015, at 3:26 AM, Akim Demaille wrote:
>>
>>> Le 19 janv. 2015 à 09:27, Ryan Schmidt a écrit :
>>
>> Hi Ryan,
>>
>>> If you mean /opt/local/var/macports/software, that's where the compressed archives of all your installed ports are stored. You are not meant to interact with this directory manually. To remove an archive from this directory, uninstall the corresponding port. If you're still using the port and don't wish to uninstall it, then you should not delete the corresponding archive in this directory, or you won't be able to re-activate the port if you deactivate it. There may be other aspects of MacPorts that also assume you have not tampered with the contents of this directory.
>>
>> Well, I'm a grownup and willing to take these chances.  I don't
>> play with activate/deactivate.  I know of no other distros that
>> "wastes" that kind of disk space for that.  That some wish to
>> use this feature, fine.  But I need those gigs back.
>
> Of note is that MacPorts used to not do this, or rather, using these archives used to be optional, and not the default. Previously, the default was that the contents of /opt/local/var/macports/software was the actual software being installed. Hard links would then be created in the "real" locations. This did not waste disk space, however various new features of OS X interacted badly with this, including Spotlight as of OS X v10.4 and Time Machine as of OS X v10.5, so we were forced to remove the previous mode of operation and insist on using archives instead.
>
> I am not familiar with what other package management systems do.

It is correct that all others I am familiar with do not require the user 
to effectively have two copies (albeit one compressed) on their system, 
the installed one and the original install media (whether that be tar, 
rpm, deb or whatever).

So I think it is a reasonable question as to why MP requires this. My 
SSD is quite big, so space does not concern me particularly, but also I 
very rarely activate/deactivate (I would guess I am not that different 
to a lot of users here) and thus could easily give this option up. If I 
remove something then decide I want it back, well I have to re-download 
the binary tarball or rebuild it.

I think keeping these tarballs should be made optional again, in some way...

Chris