A simple request (MkHexGrid) turned into ...

[Ken Cunningham]

It was a couple of years ago I fixed up ICU — so I don’t recall just now a specific python 2.7 reason.

Bootstrapping maybe. Sorry,

Ken



> On May 14, 2022, at 9:27 AM, Mojca Miklavec <mojca at macports.org> wrote:
> 
> On Sat, 14 May 2022 at 16:20, Michael wrote:
>> 
>> So I thought I'd install a simple little hex map generator. Mkhexgrid.
>> 
>> Hasn't been updated in years, should be simple, right?
>> 
>> Three versions of Python (37, 38, and 39)
>> A full reinstall of X
>> 
>> I mean, I can sort-of understand perl, one python, and ssl -- maybe it needed to rebuild something, and needed updated ssh fetching and rebuilding the compilation environment.
>> 
>> But everything else? And three versions of python? And not just python 2 vs python 3.
> 
> For me python 2.7 sneaks in as a build dependency of ICU (that only
> affects users of the latest macOS).
> I see neither python 3.7 nor python 3.8 on the dependency list. Those
> could be side-effects of something that you have installed earlier
> which keeps depending on an older version of python. Or maybe you are
> using a different OS version that has slightly different dependencies.
> 
> The following patch for ICU that replaces python 2.7 with 3.10 seems
> to work for me:
> 
> --- a/devel/icu/Portfile
> +++ b/devel/icu/Portfile
> @@ -113,9 +113,9 @@ if {${subport} eq ${name} || ${subport} eq "${name}-lx"} {
> test.args VERBOSE=1
> 
> if {${os.platform} eq "darwin" && (${os.major} < 11 || ${os.major} > 20)} {
> - depends_build-append port:python27
> - license_noconflict python27
> - configure.python ${prefix}/bin/python2.7
> + depends_build-append port:python310
> + license_noconflict python310
> + configure.python ${prefix}/bin/python3.10
> }
> 
> if {${build_arch} eq "ppc" || ${build_arch} eq "ppc64"} {
> 
> This patch should probably be applied anyway.
> 
> (Ken: is there some Tiger-like reason to keep python 2.7 as a build
> dependency of ICU?)
> 
> You can check why you are getting weird dependency by running the
> following command:
>    port rdeps mkhexgrid
> 
> Say, the reason why you need python 3.9 is because meson currently
> declares a dependency on python 3.9 and that should definitely be
> changed as well.
> There's an open pull request for meson from 2 days ago.
> 
>> I'm assuming that somewhere, some graphical library was being used that could output to X as well as to ascii/curses. I just have no idea what.
> 
> Yes, mkhexgrid depends on gd2 which depends on X11 by default. Try to
> run "port info gd2" or check
>    https://ports.macports.org/port/gd2/details/
> 
> You can avoid the need to install x11 by installing "sudo port install
> gd2 -x11" before installing mkhexgrid.
> 
> All I can say is that the situation with multiple versions of
> python/perl/etc. could and should be improved.
> Whether or not the default variant to install gd2 with X11 support is
> something that I'm not competent to judge.
> 
> "port rdeps <name>" will usually provide you enough information to
> figure out why some dependency is there.
> Sometimes it makes sense, sometimes it's something that could be improved.
> 
> Btw: you should usually update all your ports before installing a new port.
> It could happen that by installing a new port, one of the libraries (a
> dependency) will be upgraded, while another port that depends on that
> same library won't be updated and may stop working.
> 
> Mojca