> On May 23, 2020, at 12:39 AM, Ryan Schmidt <ryandes...@macports.org> wrote: > > On May 22, 2020, at 09:52, Craig Treleaven wrote: > >> I’m working on a new port and was using the fsdb port as a model. Oddly, >> when a non-default variant is selected, it seems the perl portgroup still >> adds a dependency on the default perl version. In the case of fsdb, the >> default variant is +perl5_28: >> >> $ port info --variants --depends_lib fsdb +perl5_30 >> variants: perl5_26, perl5_28, perl5_30 >> depends_lib: perl5.30, perl5.28, gzip, p5.30-html-parser, p5.30-io-compress, >> p5.30-io-compress-lzma, p5.30-test-pod, p5.30-test-pod-coverage, >> p5.30-test-simple, p5.30-text-csv_xs, p5.30-xml-simple, p5.30-yaml-libyaml >> >> Note that the first two library dependencies are "perl5.30, perl5.28,”. Not >> a huge problem for most users but it could lead to a redundant port >> installation and/or confusion. >> >> I can’t follow the code in the port group well enough to say why this is >> happening. It isn’t deliberate, is it? > > The perl5 portgroup is intended to be used in one of three ways: > > 1. to make a perl module whose name is "p5-something". The portgroup will > create subports like p5.28-something and p5.30-something each of which will > depend on the correct perl5.xx. > > 2. to make a port whose name is "something" that happens to be distributed as > a perl module but which is not used as a perl module as a dependency by any > other port, for example a port for program that the user might wish to run > when the program happened to have been written in perl. If the user might > care which perl version is used then the port can offer variants which the > portgroup will create. > > 3. to add perl variants to any port. The portgroup will create variants which > will depend on the correct perl5.xx. > > > fsdb seems to be in category 2 and I can see only 7 total ports in this > category. I agree, in this use case the portgroup erroneously adds another > perl dependency. Some of the ports in this category "avoid" the problem by > overwriting the dependencies that the portgroup had set, which is probably > not a solution we should advocate. This should probably be fixed in the > portgroup (or just file a ticket for now). > Thank you again, Ryan, for a concise but detailed explanation. I take it this summary of the 3 uses of the perl5 portgroup isn’t documented anywhere?
Re category 2, I guess there are now 8 ports using the portgroup this way since I committed xmltv yesterday. xmltv is a suite of nearly 50 programs for downloading and manipulating television listings data. These programs just happen to be perl scripts. As I was working on the port, it was initially producing subports like p5-28-xmltv and p5.30-xmltv PLUS variants to each port (+perl5_28 or +perl5_30). Sort of a hybrid of categories 1 and 2. The “fix” was to move the github.setup line _before_ the perl5.setup line in the port file. I think this worked because the github.setup line defines the Name variable. This behaviour seems pretty obscure to me but maybe it would be obvious if I could read the portgroup code better. I can take a stab at writing a section for the guide if someone more conversant will review and edit. Or is there work in progress somewhere? Craig
