gtk-doc @1.28_1 requires texlive?

[rpspringuel (Fr. Samuel Springuel)]

I went to upgrade from gimp 2.8.22 to 2.10.2 today and ran into some problems. Apparently gimp now requires texlive ports? (gimp -> gimp2 -> appstream-glib -> gtk-doc -> dblatex -> texlive-latex-extra, et al.) This is a new dependency (relatively speaking) and one I really don't want to deal with as I already have MacTeX installed. Is it possible for this dependency to be removed or avoided?

[ryandesign (Ryan Carsten Schmidt)]

gtk-doc was changed to require dblatex, which requires texlive. I don't know if the parts of texlive that dblatex requires are available in mactex. If they are, dblatex's dependency on texlive should be rewritten as a bin:-style dependency.

[mf2k (Frank Schima)]

Note that a "request" ticket type is only for requesting a new port.

[neverpanic (Clemens Lang)]

dblatex has a +mactex variant contributed by a user in #55106 that allows using MacTeX with dblatex. Have you tried that?

[rpspringuel (Fr. Samuel Springuel)]

I just tried port install gimp +mactex and that does indeed pass the variant down so that dblatex sees it and the texlive dependencies are not listed amongst the dependencies to be installed. However, when the installation gets to dblatex, an error is thrown. I'm attaching the log.

[rpspringuel (Fr. Samuel Springuel)]

Log with dblatex error.

[neverpanic (Clemens Lang)]

Replying to rpspringuel:

I just tried port install gimp +mactex and that does indeed pass the variant down so that dblatex sees it and the texlive dependencies are not listed amongst the dependencies to be installed. However, when the installation gets to dblatex, an error is thrown. I'm attaching the log.

It seems you didn't follow the note in the description of the +mactex variant of the dblatex port:

$> port variants dblatex
   mactex: Allow dblatex to use a MacTeX installation instead of Macports texlive tools.
           To install the mactex variant /Library/TeX/texbin must be added to binpath
           in macports.conf

You must edit your macports.conf to include the MacTeX versions of the mentioned tools in MacPorts' $PATH variable, for this variant to work.

[rpspringuel (Fr. Samuel Springuel)]

You're right, I didn't see that note. Having made that modification, dblatex installed just fine. The note then showed up as part of the post-installation notes. It seems to me that a note which indicates an installation requirement should appear as a pre-installation note, not a post-installation one.

[neverpanic (Clemens Lang)]

Replying to rpspringuel:

The note then showed up as part of the post-installation notes. It seems to me that a note which indicates an installation requirement should appear as a pre-installation note, not a post-installation one.

There is no direct support for pre-installation notes in MacPorts. I could modify the port to always print a message during installation. Do you think that's required in addition to the description of the variant?

[rpspringuel (Fr. Samuel Springuel)]

I think it would be useful. As is one is only going to see the note before installation if one knows to look for it with port variants. Having the message appear during installation (either always or only upon a failed installation) would have alerted me to the needed change without having to post to this issue. Once I knew the change was needed it was fairly elementary for me to figure out how to make the change and do it. The problem was simply knowing that it needed to be done.

Another option would be to add to the information generated by port info. This could be the full message, or simply a note to check port variants for extra information regarding the mactex variant.

[dbevans (David B. Evans)]

This really is not an issue with gimp but with gtk-doc which is a build dependency of gimp2 and probably a numer of its dependencies.

dblatex (which depends on several texlive ports) is used by gtk-doc to provide API documentation in PDF format as opposed to HTML format (default). PDF output is optional (and not used by many ports if any to my knowledge) and so the dblatex dependency can probably be removed but there is no switch in configure to absolutely disable PDF output -- it just enables PDF if dblatex (or alternatively fop) is available.

I have no problem disabling PDF output by default but this will require a patch to configure. I'll see if this works.

[dbevans (David B. Evans)]

In 5aa786cee83ea1f87aacf82bf1e31b05c52e5df9/macports-ports (master):

gtk-doc: add +pdf variant for PDF output, disabled by default

Using gtk-doc to generate PDF rather than HTML API docs is rarely
used (if at all). This removes a fairly heavy dependency on dblatex
and its texlive-latex dependencies. The script gtkdoc-mkpdf is still
installed but attempting to use it will remind you that PDF support
is disabled.

If you need to generate PDF output, build gtk-doc +pdf.

Closes #56688.