On 2010-01-22, at 5:05 PM, Ryan Schmidt wrote:
>> Evidently a portfile's "platform(s)" even despite absence from the
>> portfile's "variants" clauses get treated in the MacPorts web site listing
>> (I am not sure about the guide) as a "variant" despite that if you would
>> specify in the port command line, you get chastised by the console as well
>> as on-list by the non-newbies :-)
>
> I didn't understand the point of your paragraph.
I appreciate the diplomacy in the reply, and apologize for what (I like to
hope) was just my reaction to feeling stupid... just as I think I understand
something about MacPorts, it seems often I am wrong, but maybe it will not
always be so.
When learners would browse:
https://www.macports.org/ports.php?by=name&substr=wxWidgets
they would see a profile "Variants" which includes "darwin_10" despite no
like-named entry in a "variant" clause within the portfile but maybe I better
understand it now as follows (?)
Within a portfile, and among its first several lines is a variable "platforms"
(note plural) in which one or more "major" platforms like darwin, X11 are
definable. I imagine these define the most basic of potential compatibilities.
Much lower down within a portfile resides a provision for "variants" (generic
sense) of three kinds:
- keyword "platform" (implicit variant) -- note the singular "platform", as
opposed to the required variable above -- makes possible automatic alterations
and customizations subject automatically when the host platform matches a
*specific* platform e.g. "darwin_10" (Snow Leopard) within the "darwin" of the
required variable "platforms" irrespective of user action
- keyword "variants" (explicit variant) whose naming while it may follow a
convention may unlike "platform" lack any specific code-execution meaning. The
portfile keyword "variant" serves to gather together any set of alterations and
customizations that the maintainer decides to provide on a user-selectable basis
- non-explicitly-defined "universal" (implicit variant) defined by one or more
among "use_configure yes" or the keywords "configure..." and/or
"use_parallel_build"
If we would here refer to the online Guide, it states:
Variants are a way for port authors to provide options for a port that may be
chosen during the port install. To display the available variants, if any, use
this command"
port variants fetchmail
... so the above could be improved by saying
Variants can be specified by port authors to be platform-specific and automatic
(portfile keyword "platform"), or optionally chosen during the port install
(portfile keyword "variant"). Another optional install variant can be
"universal" as reflected by portfile entries like "use_configure yes" or the
keywords "configure...". To display the available variants, if any, use this
command
port variants fetchmail
or retain the original while appending the clarifying bits to the "Note" that
already exists in the guide.
... would anyone think this an improvement that I should put into a ticket?
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