portmaster: printing messages that do not come from pkg-message files

[Nikola Lečić]

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On Sat, 02 Jan 2010 13:41:25 -0800
  in <4B3FBD85.9090109 at FreeBSD.org>
  Doug Barton <dougb at FreeBSD.org> wrote:
 
> Nikola Lečić wrote:
> > Hello,
> > 
> > portmaster's feature to print collected pkg-message files after
> > successful installation is very useful. However, there are many
> > ports that echo messages from inside Makefile, usually in
> > post-install phase (but not exclusively there).
> > 
> > A simple question: would it be possible (or better, would it be
> > desirable) to collect that text as well and to include it in the
> > final output in the same way it is done with pkg-messages?
> 
> In a word, no. :)  Random messages emitted by the port at random
> points in the process are evil (well, usually they are evil), and
> should not be encouraged.

I see. I asked because the practice to emit such messages seems to be
widespread and I cannot find any place where the Porters Handbook
discourages it -- correct me if I am wrong.

> Messages related to build choices should be handled by OPTIONS,
> information that the user needs after the port is installed should be
> handled in the pkg-message. Portmaster has support for both of those.

Yes, but port messages often tells what could have been done differently
_before_; see below.

> If you have something specific in mind, or specific examples of a port
> that emits something meaningful I'll be glad to take another look, but
> as a general principle my opinion is that using the established
> mechanisms is the better route to take.

editors/openoffice.org-*: the ports emit a lot of important info
  through files/Makefile.knobs; it would be nice to have these messages
  printed after the build; they are not about what should be done
  after the install, but about what *could* be done differently.

multimedia/mplayer: the same thing, two important messages that should
  not be lost somewhere in a huge build log.

net/quagga: big pre-everything and crucial post-install info.

security/stunnel: again, crucial post-install info.

databases/mysql60-server: everything that is important is echoed in
  advance.

devel/tmake: an example of short post-install message -- is it worth
  adding pkg-message instead?

Also,
lang/php_doc
www/apache22
www/moinmoin
mail/squirrelmail

Finally, not that important, but some my own ports have Makefile
messages: textproc/scim-kmfl-imengine in pre-patch and other
scim-kmfl-* ports in post-install; I never met any resistance by any
committer in regard to that fact.

I understand that these things could be handled by OPTIONS and
pkg_message, but this is not the case. So, if this behaviour is
considered definitely bad, maybe maintainers should be called to
gradually adapt their ports accordingly (as Julien Laffaye suggested in
his reply and as it was done in the past, e.g. for adding more
DESKTOP_ENTRIES)?

> PS, I'm glad you find the pkg-message feature useful. :)

Indeed, among many others. :-)

Best wishes,
- -- 
Nikola Lečić = Никола Лечић
fingerprint : FEF3 66AF C90E EDC3 D878  7CDC 956D F4AB A377 1C9B
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