RFE: Prefetch mode of operation

[n8gray@…]

As a laptop user I have intermittant network connectivity. It would be very useful if I could fetch all the sources needed for building a port and its uninstalled dependencies *before* building anything. One way to do this would be with a 'recursive' flag to 'port fetch'. Another (better, IMHO) option would be to allow 'fetch-first' as a permanent mode of operation. I would prefer to work this way all the time anyway.

[mww@…]

adding this to your .bashrc will provide this feature right away (wether or not this feature will make it to port(1))

#--- fetch_deps() {

for i in port deps $1 | tr -d "\r" | grep -v ^${1}; do

port fetch $i & fetch_deps $i;

done

} #---

[pguyot@…]

I personally would rather have something that fetches binaries while dependencies are being compiled. This requires some heavy work on the dependency engine, though.

[mww@…]

Paul, this is easy, too #--- port_install() {

port install $* & for i in port deps $1 | tr -d "\r" | grep -v ^${1}; do

port fetch $i & fetch_deps $i;

done

} #---

[francisga@…]

Make -R work with 'port fetch'. Applied against version 1.320.

[francisga@…]

Updates the man page for the -R switch.

[francisga@…]

I have attached a 20-line patch to port.tcl against MacPorts 1.320 that that makes the -R switch work with the fetch stage.

port -R fetch somepackage

will fetch everything needed to build and run somepackage, so that a later port install somepackage will work even if offline.

I originally posted the patch to Ticket #11446, without realizing it was a dup of this ticket.

[raimue@…]

Don't use the -R switch, as it is already used for following dependents (not dependencies; some fun with english).

I propose to use -r, which could also be used on other actions. -r follow dependencies (e.g. on fetch) -R follow dependents (e.g. on upgrade)

Whereas -n is the opposite of -r.

This would be much more consistent than using -R for this.

[raimue@…]

To be consistent with other commands, we should use port fetch --follow-deps for this.