Manually registering dependencies for ports

[Thomas Rasmussen]

Hello,

I've been wondering about something: When I write a script or webapp that
needs some port to run, like a perl module, I install the needed port and
life is good (tm). A year later when I've completely forgotten about the
script I go do some spring-cleaning of the ports on the server, and I see
some perl module that doesn't have any dependencies, and delete it. Fast
forward a few days when I discover the script doesn't work anymore, cue
face-palm, remove bullet from foot, etc.

Is there some way I can register a dependency to prevent this ? Like
adding a flag to an installed port to say "something outside of the ports
system depends on this" along with a user specified comment string. A
system like that could result in something like this:

pkg_delete -x p5-something
pkg_delete: p5-something cant be uninstalled because: "somescript.pl uses
this module, for the love of everything good do not delete it"

Is something like this already implemented, or does anyone have suggestions
to where I might begin if I want to make this ? Am I the only FreeBSD
admin absent-minded enough to have this problem ? :)

Best regards

Thomas Steen Rasmussen

PS: I know that this kind of hand-holding is uncommon in FreeBSD. We
allow all kinds of foot-shooting, but a safeguard like this would be a nice
improvement to an (IMO) already excellent ports system.