MacPorts XCode Installation

[Peter Hancock]

On 26/02/2022 18:04, Haren Samarasinghe wrote:
> After reading the installation guide [1], quite a few people that
> I've introduced MacPorts to have thought that a full XCode
> installation is required. They're uncertain of doing this due to the
> large amount of space it requires.

Quite. I have full Xcode, regretfully, plus the CLI tools.
I'm never confiident that some that Macports installation needs the full thing.

> In reality, I'd say that the majority of ports only require the
> command line tools. In the scenarios where XCode is required for a
> port, the user is normally alerted to this.

Being alerted is one thing, undergoing the grief of installing
The Full Thing is another, and uninstalling TFT afterwards yet another.
(It's not 100% clear to me how to get rid of it, while keeping the CLT)

> I was planning on changing the docs [1][2] to show that XCode isn't
> required, but I wanted to first check whether this would be an
> acceptable change.

Acceptable to me.

A peripheral point is the way Apple deletes "receipts" for previous
command reinstalls, and once or twice a month, one (seemingly) has to
jump through the well-worn hoop of touching a flag-file into existence,
doing an Apple update, and deleting the flag afterwards.

That's tolerable, but it's a chore, and a worrying one. It's tempting to
think (falsely): if I install TFT, perhaps this nonsense will stop.

The clearer this (general, TFT) topic can be made, the better.

Peter Hancock