Do I really have to install 80 packages?

[Polytropon]

On Fri, 11 Oct 2013 17:54:24 -0400, Glenn Sieb wrote:
> On 10/11/13 5:38 PM, Walter Hurry wrote:
> > FreeBSD 9.1
> > 
> > I want ONE shared lib; i.e. rsvg.so, which is provided by
> > x11-toolkits/py-gnome-desktop.
> > 
> > Unfortunately, it seems that going the normal route I shall have to 
> > install 80! ports to get it. Is there an easier way?
> 
> Actually I think you want x11-toolkits/gtk20..? Would pkg_add work for you?

Maybe graphics/librsvg2 is better suited (even though it's
version 2 of the library). The problem initially mentions
will remain: lots of installation dependencies. Sadly, that
seems to be normal today as "modern software" tends to rely
on layers of libraries of abstraction of tools of utilities
of stuff of layers of layers of other abstractions. :-)

As you see: "gnome-desktop" and "gtk20". That should bring
your warning lights up: lots of dependencies ahead!

When you try to install a "simple desktop environment", you'll
be confronted with hundreds of packages to be installed, some
of them you've probably never had thought of in regards of
what you "need" to install a desktop, such as two or more
different databases, LaTeX, translators, and other surprising
stuff. This will probably apply to most complex components and
parts of desktop environments or X11 toolkits (as mentioned
above).

As I mentioned, the librsvg2 port will install lib/librsvg-2.so.
It might require you to re-install your target application to
link against that library.

A library libsvg.so (without version number) doesn't seem to
be in the ports tree by that name.

My lazy man's method of searching what port might contain the
library: Midnight Commander, go to /usr/ports, Meta-?, seach
in "pkg-plist", search for text "librsvg" and examine the
results with PF3. This method relies on approaches that might
be wrong... :-)

Note that my (locally installed) ports tree is not up to date
anymore so you should consider performing a search on a recent
tree to make sure I didn't miss anything.



-- 
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...