Request for port: file_cmds

[cooljeanius (Eric Gallager)]

MacPorts already has portfiles for the bootstrap_cmds and developer_cmds packages from opensource.apple.com, and so, in the interest of working towards the goal of MacPorts being entirely self-hosting one day, I'd like to request that the ​file_cmds from opensource.apple.com be added to MacPorts, too. I'm cc-ing mfeiri because he's the maintainer for bootstrap_cmds and developer_cmds.

[ryandesign (Ryan Carsten Schmidt)]

Looks like file_cmds provides some very basic commands, like rm and chown. Why would we need a port for those — what OS do we think we might be running on that wouldn't have these basic utilities?

[cooljeanius (Eric Gallager)]

Replying to ryandesign@…:

Looks like file_cmds provides some very basic commands, like rm and chown. Why would we need a port for those — what OS do we think we might be running on that wouldn't have these basic utilities?

It wouldn't have to be all of them; it's mostly just for pax and mtree.

Edit: now that I think about it some more, it's really actually just mtree.

Double edit: quickly firing up a tiny Linux VM, it's missing:

• chflags
• compress
• csh (although the folder "csh" in file_cmds is apparently used for something different than the command titled csh anyway, so this one doesn't really matter)
• mtree
• pathchk
• pax
• rmt (actually my OS X machine doesn't even come with this one, either)
• shar

[mfeiri]

I have no objections against such a port. But I also dont see the purpose. The reason for creating the bootstrap_cmds and developer_cmds ports was to facilitate building xnu-headers and friends. The tools provided by bootstrap_cmds and developer_cmds are not included in the base OS. I am not sure who/what would benefit from a port of file_cmds.

[cooljeanius (Eric Gallager)]

Replying to mfeiri:

I have no objections against such a port. But I also dont see the purpose. The reason for creating the bootstrap_cmds and developer_cmds ports was to facilitate building xnu-headers and friends. The tools provided by bootstrap_cmds and developer_cmds are not included in the base OS. I am not sure who/what would benefit from a port of file_cmds.

I originally opened this bug as part of an effort to build an entirely self-hosting MacPorts some day, and, as MacPorts makes need of the mtree command, it'd need a port that provides an mtree command to become entirely self-hosting.