loose dependency

[Eugene Grosbein]

14.03.2019 11:40, Hiroki Sato wrote:

> Koichiro Iwao <meta at FreeBSD.org> wrote
>   in <20190314031726.aaspgwdcuithhgnc at icepick.vmeta.jp>:
> 
> me> Hi,
> me>
> me> If a port have runtime dependency on bin/convert command of ImageMagick
> me> but whichever ImageMagick{6,7}{,-nox11} are OK, how port Makefile should
> me> be written?
> me>
> me> ImageMagick6 and 7 conflicts each other. I want to respect user's
> me> choice which ImageMagick to use.
> 
>  There is no easy solution to solve it completely because currently
>  package dependency is solved in a strict manner including package
>  names and version numbers, not only existence of specific files.
>  Creating multiple ports which depend on each software or using
>  FLAVORS to make it easier is a way to provide packages with every
>  possible combinations of dependency and let one to choose.

OTOH, one still may create a port depending on existence of specific file
and fetching another port automatically in case of file absence.
It works just fine for those using ports as primary source, not packages.

And yes, if one uses packages, it is forced to live with "default" versions
including dependencies or build its own pkg repo.