privoxy @3.0.32 uses indeterminate perl5.major for dependencies

[brunoomartin]

port upgrade fails on upgrading privoxy (dependency problem) on a mac running 11.6.1, Xcode 13.1, MacPorts 2.7.1 Here is the output of the upgrade failure:

Warning: No port p5.26-sgmlspm found in the index.
Warning: No port p5.26-getopt-long found in the index.
Warning: No port p5.26-time-local found in the index.
--->  Computing dependencies for privoxy
Error: Dependency 'p5.26-sgmlspm' not found.

[jmroot (Joshua Root)]

The problem is that privoxy doesn't use a specific version of perl, it just goes with whatever variant you happen to have installed perl5 with. That's already bad for reproducibility, but it also results in nonexistent dependencies being used sometimes, as you've discovered.

[essandess (Steve Smith)]

I though this Portfile code used whatever is set to be the default perl5 branch per ​https://github.com/macports/macports-ports/blob/d275a24edbefe7f361f2aa6eb8f59648092058c0/_resources/port1.0/group/perl5-1.0.tcl#L11

Whenever MacPorts bumps the default version, privoxy should just follow along and not hard code its own perl5 version.

What’s the correct way to do that?

[essandess (Steve Smith)]

Replying to jmroot:

The problem is that privoxy doesn't use a specific version of perl, it just goes with whatever variant you happen to have installed perl5 with. That's already bad for reproducibility, but it also results in nonexistent dependencies being used sometimes, as you've discovered.

This doesn’t appear to be this issue. I looked at the way other Portfiles handle this, and a significant number do not set perl5.major: ​https://github.com/search?q=perl5.major+repo%3Amacports%2Fmacports-ports+filename%3APortfile&type=Code&ref=advsearch&l=&l=

As far as I can tell, the privoxy Portfile is also doing this correctly.

I do not know how to resolve this dependency issue.

[essandess (Steve Smith)]

In 8bc65f7fd61a11aab515ee6fb2f6c11d19ce68e9/macports-ports (master):

privoxy: Bugfixes

• Fixes: #64079
• Fix man page paths

[jmroot (Joshua Root)]

Replying to essandess:

This doesn’t appear to be this issue. I looked at the way other Portfiles handle this, and a significant number do not set perl5.major: ​https://github.com/search?q=perl5.major+repo%3Amacports%2Fmacports-ports+filename%3APortfile&type=Code&ref=advsearch&l=&l=

As far as I can tell, the privoxy Portfile is also doing this correctly.

I do not know how to resolve this dependency issue.

If other ports are doing the same thing, they are also incorrect. The version of perl used by privoxy changes depending on how perl5 is installed:

% port deps privoxy
Full Name: privoxy @3.0.33_1+https_inspection
Fetch Dependencies:   gnupg2
Build Dependencies:   autoconf, automake, libtool, sf-pwgen
Library Dependencies: brotli, pcre, zlib, apple-pki-bundle, curl-ca-bundle,
                      openssl, openssl
Runtime Dependencies: perl5.30, p5.30-getopt-long, p5.30-time-local
% sudo port install perl5 +perl5_28 
--->  Computing dependencies for perl5
--->  Deactivating perl5 @5.28.3_0+perl5_30
--->  Cleaning perl5
--->  Activating perl5 @5.28.3_0+perl5_28
--->  Cleaning perl5
% port deps privoxy                 
Full Name: privoxy @3.0.33_1+https_inspection
Fetch Dependencies:   gnupg2
Build Dependencies:   autoconf, automake, libtool, sf-pwgen
Library Dependencies: brotli, pcre, zlib, apple-pki-bundle, curl-ca-bundle,
                      openssl, openssl
Runtime Dependencies: perl5.28, p5.28-getopt-long, p5.28-time-local

This is simply incompatible with binary distribution. It will be built to use a certain perl version on the build machine, and that perl version may not even be present on the user's machine because the dependencies evaluate differently there.

The port needs to choose a specific perl version in a deterministic way. You can offer variants if it is desirable to be able to use different perl versions.

[chrstphrchvz (Christopher Chavez)]

The stow port also appears to be affected by this.

[essandess (Steve Smith)]

In e1ba6fef443657fe07cff999217452f72c67e824/macports-ports (master):

privoxy: Bugfix perl5.major

• Fixes: #64079