Pruning old Perl installs

[Ryan Schmidt]

In future please write to our new list addresses at lists.macports.org, not the old addresses that we retired in late 2016. They still forward to the new addresses but not all users are able to receive those forwards due to restrictions imposed by their email service providers. 

On Apr 6, 2020, at 21:23, Kieran Simpson wrote:

> I'm going through my ports installation and pruning out old versions. I've cleared out a few Python installs and now Perl is getting the same treatment. However I've gotten stuck and am not sure on the best way to proceed without breaking something.
> 
> $ port installed perl*
> The following ports are currently installed:
>   perl5 @5.26.1_0+perl5_26 (active)
>   perl5.24 @5.24.4_4 (active)
>   perl5.26 @5.26.3_4 (active)
>   perl5.28 @5.28.2_2 (active)
> 
> $ port dependents perl5.24
> p5.24-alien-wxwidgets depends on perl5.24
> ....
> 
> $ sudo port uninstall p5.24-alien-wxwidgets depends on perl5.24

Here you are asking MacPorts to uninstall the four ports named "p5.24-alien-wxwidgets", "depends", "on", and "perl5.24" which is probably not what you meant. 

> Note: It is not recommended to uninstall/deactivate a port that has dependents as it breaks the dependents.
> The following ports will break: p5-alien-wxwidgets @0.690.0_0
> 
> $ port info p5-alien-wxwidgets
> p5-alien-wxwidgets @0.690.0 (perl)
> Replaced by:        p5.26-alien-wxwidgets
> Sub-ports:            p5.26-alien-wxwidgets, p5.28-alien-wxwidgets, p5.30-alien-wxwidgets
> 
> Library Dependencies: p5.26-alien-wxwidgets
> 
> So by removing p5.24-alien-wxwidgets I don't think anything will break. However any advice on how to proceed would be appreciated.

I agree that nothing will break and you can safely force the uninstallation of any p5.24-* port that claims its corresponding p5-* port will break. (It won't.) However there is no reason to install any p5-* port so you could uninstall those as well and thus avoid the erroneous message.