ports/158179: some packages do not fully honor -P dir option in pkg_add(1)

[Stephen Montgomery-Smith]

The following reply was made to PR ports/158179; it has been noted by GNATS.

From: Stephen Montgomery-Smith <stephen at missouri.edu>
To: Adrian Chadd <adrian at freebsd.org>
Cc: Chris Rees <crees at freebsd.org>,
        "freebsd at sopwith.solgatos.com" <freebsd at sopwith.solgatos.com>,
        Stephen Montgomery-Smith <stephen at freebsd.org>,
        FreeBSD Ports <freebsd-ports at freebsd.org>,
        "bug-followup at freebsd.org" <bug-followup at freebsd.org>,
        Stefan Bethke <stb at lassitu.de>
Subject: Re: ports/158179: some packages do not fully honor -P dir option
 in	pkg_add(1)
Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2011 10:12:07 -0500

 current -> ports
 
 On 07/16/2011 09:02 PM, Adrian Chadd wrote:
 > Unless say, you're doing package installation outside of a
 > chroot/jail, to populate something inside a chroot/jail before you
 > start said chroot/jail.
 >
 
 I can see "-P" and "-p" working for those many ports which just put 
 programs in place.  But there are some ports that include installation 
 programs as part of the software.  And some ports (like octave) which 
 have a program which sometimes acts as an installation script, and 
 sometimes acts as a user program.  And sometimes those installation 
 programs install for the port, and sometimes they install for a subport.
 
 If we are to continue using the "-P" and "-p" options, I suggest someone 
 does the following:
 
 1.  Spell out very clearly its purpose - is it to populate a jail, for 
 example?
 
 2.  Set up a computer that tests each package to see if it is "-P" 
 compliant and "-p" compliant.  By the way, each should be tested 
 separately.  For example, suppose latex-pgf is installed with the "-p" 
 option.  Then does it expect mktexlsr to be in the directory it is 
 installing into, or the regular directory?  mktexlsr is installed by a 
 dependency, so the package needs to know where to find it.  It would 
 seem to me that you need a PKG_LOCALBASE variable as well as a 
 PKG_PREFIX variable, so that the port knows where to find these 
 installation programs.
 
 3.  Add a flag to ports that allow the port maintainer to mark the port 
 "-p" non-compliant and "-P" non-compliant.
 
 The other possibility is to add to the man page of pkg_add saying that 
 there is a good chance the "-p" and "-P" options don't work properly. 
 Some people have clearly indicated that they like and use these options, 
 so let's keep them happy too, and not delete it altogether.
 
 Stephen