Michael Newman wrote: >> On Apr 12, 2019, at 06:19, Ryan Schmidt <ryandesign at macports.org> wrote: >> >> It's difficult to answer a question this broad. But I can tell you a little >> about how I answer port build failure bug reports or posts on the list. > > Thank you for taking the time to write such an interesting and informative > post. > > I suppose the root of my problem is that while I have a basic understanding > of how to use MacPorts, I have very little knowledge about how it actually > works. > > For example, I’ve been confused as to why some ports generate a config log > and some don’t. You explained that. > > I suppose the takeaway from your post is that I should take more time to > study other threads and learn from them. My failure is to only read this list > when I have a problem of my own to solve. That’s a poor strategy for > learning. > > Thanks again for taking the time to write.
If you're looking for an introduction to MacPorts internals, there's this: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46qshiDskrM> There's also some (brief) information at <https://guide.macports.org/#internals> and <https://github.com/macports/macports-base/blob/master/doc/INTERNALS>. It would be nice to have some documentation that would ease the reader into this stuff without them having to have a development background. But due to the nature of what build systems do and what can go wrong with them, it would need to introduce a lot of development concepts to be able to help in figuring out why a build failed. - Josh
