how to maintain multiple active versions of a port (e.g. octave)?

[Chris Jones]

> One last question … can you give me a quick idea of how much work would be involved in me attempting to locally implement the first approach you mentioned (different ports for different versions of octave). That is, starting with the files for the 3.8.2 revision of the octave port, what would be involved in creating a local octave38 port that could be installed simultaneously with the regular, current octave port? Am I crazy to attempt this?

Th first thing you could do is just check what the port currently 
installs. Run

 > port contents octave

That will give you a list of all the files installed. You would have to 
make each and every one of those is in a location specific to its 
version, so two versions could be installed at once. You would then need 
to make sure each port using octave picks up what it needs properly. My 
guess is this is a lot of work (when I did it for root5/root6 it was a 
big deal...)

Chris