./options-descr file suggestion for ports

[Benjamin Lutz]

On Saturday 09 June 2007 18:36, David Southwell wrote:
> Hi
>
> Would it be possible , when a port has options,  to ask porters if
> they would consider the merits/demerits of adding:
>
> 1. An ./options-descr file in the port directory that describes  the
> options, their purpose and any notes about an option
>
> Reasons:
> This would be extremely useful for anyone not familiar with the port
> to help in the task of choosing which options to install.
>
> I realise that this would depend upon whether maintainers are willing
> to add an additional task to the already heavy burden they undertake.
> Maintainers who are willing to consider this idea but are reluctant
> to prepare the notes themselves but do not have the time or are for
> any reason reluctant to do so, could invite users to submit notes for
> incorporating in ./options-descr.
>
> By way of example I am just installing www/ruby-gem-rails and had no
> immediate idea whether or not to add fastcgi support without trying
> to find out whether it is or is not needed when one has mod_ruby
> installed and
> LoadModule ruby_module libexec/apache/mod_ruby.so
> in httpd.conf. A brief note in a ./options-descr could be very
> helpful, especially for some ports where the options are sometimes
> numerous and not always completely documented.
>
> A little bit of intial guidance about options would be most helpful
> to a system administrator who is not necessarily familiar with the a
> specific port.
>
> my two pennorth.
>
> david

I think that's a great idea. I've been wondering about the meaning of 
OPTIONS several times, and some canonical way to add a description 
would be quite nice.

But maybe instead of adding another file, this could be integrated into 
the pkg-descr file, and the recorded package description after a port 
is installed could contain only those options that were selected, 
filtering out the description for the other options.

Cheers
Benjamin
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