per-port make.conf options and hyphenated port names

[Matthew Pounsett]

At some point in the last couple of weeks I was pointed at <https://wiki.freebsd.org/Ports/Options/OptionsNG> as what has been implemented to deprecate make.conf settings such as “WITHOUT_X11=yes”.   That document says it has been committed, but the porters handbook section on OPTIONS doesn’t discuss the ${port}_SET/${port}_UNSET syntax, and I can’t find mention of it in /usr/ports/KNOBS either.

I’m trying to find specifics on the implementation because I’ve run into a case that document doesn’t seem to plan for:  trying to set per-port options for a hyphenated port name.

Specifically, I’m trying to do this:
virtualbox-ose-additions_UNSET=X11

Hyphenated variable names don’t work in most shells.  I think some older versions of csh could set them, but couldn't reference them, and tinderbox’s sh scripts blow right up when they encounter that.

Digging through /usr/ports/Mk/ I can’t find anywhere that $UNIQUENAME is modified to guarantee that it references a safe variable name (i.e. I don’t see anywhere that $UNIQUENAME has reserved characters removed from it before use).  So, given that a lot of times $UNIQUENAME is just the name of the port, and a lot of ports have hyphens in their names, how is this meant to be dealt with?

Thanks for any pointers or help!