Port system "problems"

[Matthew Seaman]

On 26/06/2012 09:17, Andrea Venturoli wrote:
> On 06/26/12 09:58, Matthew Seaman wrote:
>> On 26/06/2012 08:26, Marcus von Appen wrote:
>>>>> 1. Ports are not modular
>>
>>>> What do you mean by modular? if you are speaking about subpackages it
>>>> is coming,
>>>> but it takes time
>>
>>> I hope, we are not talking about some Debian-like approach here
>>> (foo-bin,
>>> foo-dev, foo-doc, ....).
>>
>> Actually, yes -- that's pretty much exactly what we're talking about
>> here.  Why do you feel subpackages would be a bad thing?
> 
> Can I share my 2c?
> 
> Because it will just multiply be three the number of ports each of us
> has to install/maintain/upgrade/etc...

Yes, it will multiply the number of ports.  By three is about right,
given that most ports will only have port-docs and port-examples
sub-ports.  However, first of all, you are assuming that the effort
required to install each of those sub-ports is the same as it is to
install a single port now.  That is simply not the case.

If you want to install the foo/bar port, then (as now) you'ld
essentially[+] --

    # cd ${PORTSDIR}/foo/bar
    # make
    # make install

but you'ld end up with bar-0.99, bar-doc-0.99 and bar-examples-0.99
installed.  Unless you have a setting like NOPORTDOCS or NOPORTEXAMPLES
(probably controlled by a dialogue menu like any other options) which
means you don't get the associated -docs or -examples sub-ports.

That's no real change in terms of what you'ld have to do compared to now.

The difference is that if you install from packages, you now have the
opportunity not to install docs or examples.

Secondly, that's just one example of how sub-ports should work, and
docs/examples will be special-cased given their ubiquity.  Most
sub-ports would be controlled by port OPTIONS dialogues.

A typical example would involve client-server apps -- so mysqlNN-server
becomes a sub-port of mysqlNN-client.  You get to check a box saying
'install the server as well as the client' when you go to install
mysqlNN.  Similarly all those php5-XYZ modules become sub-ports of
lang/php5.  The big difference being that the port and all its sub-ports
are compiled in one step, and just packaged separately. Which is
probably less work overall that the current situation with ports and
slave-ports.

	Cheers,

	Matthew

[+] Or more likely you'ld use portupgrade or portmaster or similar to
run these steps for you.

-- 
Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil.                   7 Priory Courtyard
                                                  Flat 3
PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey     Ramsgate
JID: matthew at infracaninophile.co.uk               Kent, CT11 9PW



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