Upgrading Perl... Somebody just shoot me and put me out of my misery!

[olli hauer]

On 2013-11-25 08:04, Matthias Andree wrote:
> Am 25.11.2013 07:53, schrieb olli hauer:
>> On 2013-11-25 07:40, Matthias Andree wrote:
>>> Am 23.11.2013 12:20, schrieb Mark Martinec:
>>>> On Friday 22 November 2013 21:40:07 Ronald F. Guilmette wrote:
>>>>> Now, one last little thing...
>>>>>
>>>>> The note in the UPDATING file dated 20131120 gives essentially the same
>>>>> instructions as the one dated 20131023, *however* it also contains this:
>>>>>
>>>>>    1) Change the option in lang/perl5.16:
>>>>>         make -C /usr/ports/lang/perl5.16 config
>>>>>
>>>>> HUH??  I don't understand this at all.  What exactly is "the option" that
>>>>> we are changing here?  And what does it matter to anything?
>>>>>
>>>>> It would be Nice if this were entierly less opaque.
>>>>
>>>> $ man ports
>>>> [...]
>>>>      config     Configure OPTIONS for this port using dialog4ports(1).
>>>>
>>>>> And what does it matter to anything?
>>>>
>>>> Gives you a choice to re-think your existing/chosen port options.
>>>> For example, a new default is now THREADS, but you may not like
>>>> it, as it somewhat increases the memory usage and requires
>>>> to rebuild all perl modules.
>>>
>>> Which shows an interesting facet of this whole tedious process:
>>>
>>> We're doing a lousy job of explaining the options to unsavvy users, and
>>> we're also doing a lousy job of tracking options.  Perhaps we should
>>> just slash down the options and go more for "build the default" - it
>>> also reduces testing complexity and would give for a more uniform ports
>>> experience for everyone (packages use default options anyways).
> 
>>
>> ${opt}_DESC is limited, but help/explanation can be given in pkg-help.
> 
> Granted, but last time I checked I did not have a "Help" button on
> dialog4ports.  Either none of the ports I've seen offering options offer
> pkg-help, or dialog4ports needs to be told to feed pkg-help through $PAGER.


Only if the file pkg-help exists a hint will be displayed on the bottom if
you call `make config'.

make config -C www/apache24
 "Detailed help is available hit F1 or ^E to view it"

F1 will terminate the config dialog if called by a putty ssh session but ^E
has always worked for me.


-- 
olli