Variance Handling Question

[Ryan Schmidt]

On Jun 15, 2021, at 12:18, James Secan wrote:

> I have a port installed with a default variant which I want to override.  Do I need to uninstall the current port with that variant prior to installing without the variant, or just go on to “port install prog -variant”?

Multiple versions/revisions/variants of a port can be installed at a time, though only one can be active at a time. You don't need to deactivate or uninstall a port before installing it with different variants. If you don't, MacPorts will deactivate any currently-active version of that port before activating the new one.


> Also, from here on do I need to specify in some manner that I’ve disabled a default variant when I run “port upgrade installed”?

No, because MacPorts remembers your variant selections for you across upgrades.

Note that you want "sudo port upgrade outdated" rather than "sudo port upgrade installed". The latter probably works too but would be slower.