Kevin Van Vechten <kvv@ writes: >>> Why do we have depends_lib, depends_build and depends_run? Why not >>> just a single "depends"? Why does it matter which phase requires the >>> other software? Isn't it enough to know that the other software is >>> required at some point, and so MacPorts should install that other >>> software first? > >Depends_build dependencies are only needed if you're actually >building the software. They're not needed at all once the software >is built and installed. (Think of gcc). > >Depends_run dependencies are needed when the software is run, but not >necessarily to build the software. (Think of a program that does a >fork/exec of /usr/bin/foo at runtime). > >Depends_lib dependencies are needed both at build time (for headers >and libraries to link against) and at run time (to provide necessary >code). > >For binary packages, you'd only need to consider depends_lib + >depends_run. Even for those building their own software, it makes >sense to distinguish since it gives a better sense of what uninstalls >might break (i.e. gcc is a depends_build for most projects, but >uninstalling it wouldn't interfere with many ports operation).
Thanks, Kevin. I'll review this more closely in a bit and document it in the new guide. Mark _______________________________________________ macports-dev mailing list [email protected] http://lists.macosforge.org/mailman/listinfo/macports-dev
