Limitations of Ports System

[Aryeh M. Friedman]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Paul Schmehl wrote:
> --On Friday, December 14, 2007 12:19:06 +0000 RW
> <fbsd06 at mlists.homeunix.com> wrote:
>
>> On Thu, 13 Dec 2007 22:34:58 -0500 "Aryeh M. Friedman"
>> <aryeh.friedman at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Namely if I build abc with options 123 and 345 and def with 345
>>> and 678 then 345 will be cached for def since we already set it
>>> for abc.
>>
>> How do you know the user wants 345 set on both ports?
>>
>> It might be a useful stable feature on "abc", but causes lock-ups
>> on "def"
>
> SInce I've already killfiled Aryeh, I can only infer what you are
> responding to and respond to him.  But let me state this
> emphatically in the hopes it will get through his thick skull.  IT
> IS NOT THE JOB OF PORTS TO MAKE DECISIONS FOR USERS.  Please repeat
>  that one hundred times until it gets through.
>
> No port should *ever* make decisions on a users behalf.
> Suggestions, yes (e.g. OPTIONS that are enabled by default.)
> Decisions, no.  If you depend on another port *and* on certain
> knobs in that dependency being enabled, then *tell* the user that
> during your port's install and let them decide how to handle it.
> DO NOT enable those knobs yourself, no matter how tempting it may
> be.
>
> It is beyond impossible for anyone to know what every user who is
> installing ports already has on their boxes or what they might want
>  to add or ***what you might break***.  Once you begin making
> decisions for them, you could well stomp all over something that
> was functioning perfectly normally and break a critical box.
>
> DON'T DO IT.  That is so Microsoftian it's not funny.
>
I refuse to debate people with ear plugs on... if you want an honest
debate please do so honestly
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v2.0.4 (FreeBSD)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org

iD8DBQFHYufyzIOMjAek4JIRAjWuAKCjBekW4+ysIJEBHZ5HShiIbzrRkwCcDo5H
WVBI+0rgJDXcTG3Wpeu+90Y=
=rsQy
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----