On Saturday 09 June 2007 18:36, David Southwell wrote: > Hi > > Would it be possible , when a port has options, to ask porters if > they would consider the merits/demerits of adding: > > 1. An ./options-descr file in the port directory that describes the > options, their purpose and any notes about an option > > Reasons: > This would be extremely useful for anyone not familiar with the port > to help in the task of choosing which options to install. > > I realise that this would depend upon whether maintainers are willing > to add an additional task to the already heavy burden they undertake. > Maintainers who are willing to consider this idea but are reluctant > to prepare the notes themselves but do not have the time or are for > any reason reluctant to do so, could invite users to submit notes for > incorporating in ./options-descr. > > By way of example I am just installing www/ruby-gem-rails and had no > immediate idea whether or not to add fastcgi support without trying > to find out whether it is or is not needed when one has mod_ruby > installed and > LoadModule ruby_module libexec/apache/mod_ruby.so > in httpd.conf. A brief note in a ./options-descr could be very > helpful, especially for some ports where the options are sometimes > numerous and not always completely documented. > > A little bit of intial guidance about options would be most helpful > to a system administrator who is not necessarily familiar with the a > specific port. > > my two pennorth. > > david
I think that's a great idea. I've been wondering about the meaning of OPTIONS several times, and some canonical way to add a description would be quite nice. But maybe instead of adding another file, this could be integrated into the pkg-descr file, and the recorded package description after a port is installed could contain only those options that were selected, filtering out the description for the other options. Cheers Benjamin
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