Date: 26 Mar 2008 05:05:11 -0000 From: Andrew Reilly <areilly@bigpond.net.au> To: FreeBSD-gnats-submit@FreeBSD.org Subject: ports/122105: There is no way to know what port options mean (in general) Message-ID: <20080326050511.79759.qmail@areilly.bpa.nu> Resent-Message-ID: <200803260510.m2Q5AAYh049264@freefall.freebsd.org>
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>Number: 122105
>Category: ports
>Synopsis: There is no way to know what port options mean (in general)
>Confidential: no
>Severity: serious
>Priority: medium
>Responsible: freebsd-ports-bugs
>State: open
>Quarter:
>Keywords:
>Date-Required:
>Class: change-request
>Submitter-Id: current-users
>Arrival-Date: Wed Mar 26 05:10:00 UTC 2008
>Closed-Date:
>Last-Modified:
>Originator: Andrew Reilly
>Release: FreeBSD 7.0-STABLE amd64
>Organization:
>Environment:
System: FreeBSD duncan.reilly.home 7.0-STABLE FreeBSD 7.0-STABLE #4: Sat Mar 22 21:15:39 EST 2008 root@duncan:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/DUNCAN amd64
>Description:
"make config" in many port directories produces an
interactive dialog where one may select various make
environment variables to be set. There is a one line
description of each flag, to help one make this
selection. Unfortunately, in many situations, this
description is unhelpful, as flag FOO will have
description "foo support", or possiblly "libfoo
support". Unless one is fairly well familiar with both
the package and the libraries, one can not readily know
what the implications of setting these controls one way
or the other is.
To complicate things, some options are mutually
exclusive, and one only discovers this when the build or
install subsequently fails.
>How-To-Repeat:
make config something like print/ghostscript-gpl, and wonder
what a FreeType bridge might be ("bridge", as opposed to just
using the FreeType library to render TrueType fonts?)
Notice that SVGALIB -- svgalib support doesn't mention
that svgalib is i386-only: you have to wait for the
build to fail to discover that.
>Fix:
In lieu of interactive F1 or ? keys popping up
descriptive windows (which could be nice), it would be
keen if ports could grow a new target with a name like
"desc-config" that would print out a paragraph (supplied
by the port creator/maintainer) that had at least a
(explicit) reference to the port that the config knob
pulled in as a dependency. Better would be a short
paragraph about why one might want to do that, and
perhaps what alternatives might exist.
>Release-Note:
>Audit-Trail:
>Unformatted:
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