platforms

[Ryan Schmidt]

On Mar 25, 2018, at 01:49, Jan Stary wrote:

> On Mar 24 14:14:37, Mojca wrote:
>> On 24 March 2018 at 13:54, Jan Starý wrote:
>>> The 'platforms' field of a Portfile is currently
>>> both _required_ and _ignored_. By the Guide,
>>> 
>>>        A list of the platforms on which the port has been tested.
>>>        Required, but not interpreted in any way by the software
>>>        at this time; it is purely informational for users.
>> 
>> I don't know anything about this, but it's possible that this could be
>> interpreted already, or maybe soon in the future.
> 
> Does anybody know if it is interpretd then? Guide says no.

As far as I know, the platforms variable is not currently used.


>>> Also, it is allowed to say .e.g. "freebsd" but not e.g. "openbsd".
>> 
>> Personally I don't see any reason for not allowing "openbsd" (other
>> than the fact that only two ports will have that keyword, so it will
>> probably be useless at the end).
> 
> It _is_ completely useless now, whatever you put there.
> 
>>> I propose that the 'platforms' field be no longer required
>>> if it is ignored, and if it stays, let it be a free form text,
>>> as opposed to a predefined definitive list of all unixes.
>> 
>> We'll need it to specify which darwin versions are supported.
> 
> That would totaly change the meaning,
> requiring a change of that filed for each and every port.
> In fact, making a lot of current content illegal.

Obviously if we go forward with the plan of reusing the platforms variable as a way to signify which versions of OS are acceptable, it will be done in such a way that the values ports are currently using for that variable are not considered illegal.


>> We currently have this ticket high on our priority list:
>>    https://trac.macports.org/ticket/15712
> 
> That's ten years old, and "there's no code written yet"
> as of 13 days ago.

We are aware. It is a feature we have wanted for a long time, and it was recently decided that we should perhaps finally try to do something about it.