Call for testers for yet another ports upgrade program, ports+

[Yoshihiro Ota]

On Sat, 28 Jul 2007 10:59:36 -0500
"Matthew D. Fuller" <fullermd at over-yonder.net> wrote:

> On Fri, Jul 27, 2007 at 09:48:47PM -0400 I heard the voice of
> Yoshihiro Ota, and lo! it spake thus:
> > 
> > Q. Is it safe to assume all dependencies are STATIC?
> > A. Yes, it is.
> 
> No, it's not.  Lots of ports change dependancies based on what's
> installed, so if you install one thing you have to assume that any
> other thing you intend to build in the future may change its list
> because of that.  For a trivial demonstration, look at how many use
> the ".if ${HAVE_GNOME:Msomething}" pattern.

It doesn't matter how many you have.  There are only finite number of
ports and configurations.  You will finish configuring at one point.

With GNU extension, one can write makefile dependencies such
that it keeps tracking and generating makefiles until all ports
to be installed are configured.
The key is how one will process /var/db/ports/* files.
I'd say it wouldn't be an easy one, though.
Ports+ doesn't do it, yet.

Check the link below if you'd like to know more.  The 2nd sentence
explains the concept of doing this.

Remaking Makefiles:
http://uw713doc.sco.com/cgi-bin/info2html?(make.info)Remaking%2520Makefiles&lang=en

Hiro