Compiling a port statically

[Ryan Schmidt]

On Dec 5, 2020, at 01:23, Ken Cunningham wrote:

> On 2020-12-04 11:07 p.m., Ryan Schmidt wrote:
>> I can't think of a reason why we would want to offer such a thing.
>> 
> You probably noticed some specifically asked how this would be done one question before, which is why I volunteered this. MacPorts is quite flexible for "power users".

Yes of course I saw that question. And I asked why the user needed a static build, and a reason was not provided.

> For me -- I have used this method to make a new replacement bash for systems < 10.7, and to make a gmake binary that is self-contained to use on Tiger, for my own experimentation.

Yes, since MacPorts has the facilities of the full Tcl programming language at its disposal it can do "anything" and what you do with your own private portfiles is your own business. As far as what types of portfiles MacPorts distributes, we should not distribute portfiles that perform static program builds.