document requirements beyond GCC/X11

[afb@…]

The current guide only speaks of gcc and x11, but doesn't mention that you will also need the Tcl language, rsync, curl, and GNUstep Foundation (gnustep-base) installed. Additionally, you also need GNU versions of most of the build tools such as "tar" and "install" - and even of tools such as "make" and "bash" (due to current MacPorts bugs/limitations). Additionally one might want to use standard system versions of tclthread and sqlite3, rather than using the versions bundled with MacPorts ? (--without-included-tclthread --without-included-sqlite3)

REQUIREMENTS

• GCC (required)
• X11 (recommended)
• Tcl w/ threads (required), http://www.tcl.tk/
• GNUstep-base (required), http://gnustep.org/
• rsync (required), http://rsync.samba.org/
• cURL (required), http://curl.haxx.se/
• tclthread (recommended)
• sqlite3 (recommended)
• GNU bash (required)
• GNU make (required)
• GNU tar (recommended)
• GNU coreutils (recommended)

[markd@…]

But gcc, tcl,curl, etc are vendor supplied, and a port may specify other versions as needed. The myriad problems involved in when and how to deal with vendor/port library conflicts won't be solved through documentation, and I've never installed any of these libraries manually though I've been using MP for several years, even the ones you list as required. So I don't understand in what sense are they required. And I think for something to be documented there would have to be some rule of thumb communicated (when a given app/lib is recommended and for what), and I just don't see one here. Also, I've never used GNUstep, but do non-GNUstep ports require GNUstep base?

[afb@…]

Sorry, I was only talking about MacPorts "base" installation here. Not about potential conflicts between ports and system software, even if that occurs as well - but is another story. When you are installing on Darwin, we only need to say that you need to have a) Mac OS X b) Xcode and c) X11.app installed. And that takes care of the software listed above, as it is included in those packages.

Just that then when porting/installing on another platform, it's easier to say which components are required (it's not that many) than to say "you need something resembling Mac OS X with Xcode". So the above is my attempt of fleshing out a few details of the requirements of the "base" configure. GNUstep base for instance is used instead of Foundation.framework, as included with Mac OS X...

But it'll all be easier when you see the concrete details, as they apply to FreeBSD and GNU/Linux. It's not very complex, as they each do have a "vendor supplied" package available. So basically something like "portinstall gnustep-base" or "yum install tcl-thread" does the trick.

It actually gets better than that, since the install package for those is allowed to state dependencies. So when you go to install the MacPorts package, it'll automatically add those requirements to the list and then you only need to acknowledge the extra software installation.

[afb@…]

I'll write some fleshed out documentation and put the source packages for 1.5.0 up.

Meanwhile I'd suggest renaming as:

• 2.1 Install Developer Tools
• 2.2 Install X11 (optional)
• 2.3 Install MacPorts - Binary
• 2.4 Install MacPorts - Source

[markd@…]

Ah I see. Well keep in mind that we don't have to put everything in this guide. It only has the barest cross-platform details so as not to confuse our main users. But we do want it to be as cross-platform as possible, so personally I think that if people want to get real specific on instructions for other platforms, that we have a separate document and link to it. As opposed to making 95% of our users read it or decide if it applies for the sake of 5%. On the flip side it makes a FreeBSD user have to troll through all the OS X stuff just to find the 10% he wants. That's why I favor a separate linked doc to give both OS X and FreeBSD (and other platforms) the optimal experience. In my opinion, to mix full instructions for both will greatly complicate mods, edits, and changes for evermore.

[afb@…]

Well, MacPorts is currently missing the traditional README and INSTALL files which would otherwise have been a good place to put such info. The Wiki would also have been a candidate, had it not been so out of synch. I'll just write the docs, and they could go whenever.

On the plus side, it's much easier on FreeBSD and Fedora (once a package exists), since their package managers (Ports and Yum/RPM) are much less brain-dead than what Installer.app is... Darwin users still have to install requirements like e.g. GNUstep from scratch, though.

[afb@…]

Package files for FreeBSD and Fedora was added to the portmgr directory in r30388.

[afb@…]

Let's pretend the Makefile/Specfile and http://www.macports.org/install.php#other is enough for documenting requirements for platforms other than Mac OS X (such as "freebsd" and "linux").