COMMENT: tcl - installing add-ons like tix is somewhat bothersome

[sebastian.moeller@…]

Dear all,

trying to write a port file (hijack the tcltk port for that purpose) for tix (tk interface extensions) I run into several issues that puzzle me. The main point is, that tix requires tcl and tk to compile. The catch is it requires more than the headers those ports put into ${prefix}/include. In detail the required headers live in the generic subdirectory of the tcl source directory (similar for tk). The tix configuration system parses the tclConfig.sh and the tkConfig.sh from ${prefix}/lib to find the path to the generic headers of both packages. At least in my system, which was started from scratch in February, both ${prefix/}*Config.sh contain pathes to the source and work directories of the tcl and tk ports. Those directories, unfortunately do not exist anymore after the successful install of those packages due to the nice auto-clean feature. So I managed to install tix by only extracting & configuring the tcl and tk ports (sudo -vdf configure [tcl | tk]). After this long and complicated introduction, here comes my question. How should I inside the dp framework solve the problem of the "missing" generic headers and how to deal with the "dead" paths inside the *config.sh files from the tk and tcl port?

One question that strikes me is, is it actually healthy or even viable to act like the tk port does

and pull a fresh tcl source into the port_in_question's work_dir, and if yes how to guaranty that the sucked in source's headers actually match the installed tcl instance?

[snu@…]

Please use correct summary format and assign to maintainer.

[jkh@…]

The answer is: There's no good way. If tcl just admitted that many of its "private" headers were needed by its extensions and installed these headers into some canonical "extensions only" private headers directory (in a public location), this wouldn't be a problem. Since it does not, however, there's really no choice but to unpack the appropriate version of tcl in your work directory and use it that way.