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Date:      Thu, 31 Jul 2008 08:16:28 -0400
From:      Bill Moran <wmoran@potentialtech.com>
To:        Doug Barton <dougb@FreeBSD.org>
Cc:        Marcin Wisnicki <mwisnicki+freebsd@gmail.com>, freebsd-ports@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Problems with portupgrade && xscreensaver-gnome
Message-ID:  <20080731081628.cfb49084.wmoran@potentialtech.com>
In-Reply-To: <48914065.5020901@FreeBSD.org>
References:  <20080730085123.81542622.wmoran@collaborativefusion.com> <g6ql7b$d5g$1@ger.gmane.org> <20080730174510.ab0871a3.wmoran@potentialtech.com> <g6qp8u$pm4$2@ger.gmane.org> <20080730183307.925ade48.wmoran@potentialtech.com> <48914065.5020901@FreeBSD.org>

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In response to Doug Barton <dougb@FreeBSD.org>:

> Bill Moran wrote:
> > It's a combination of a number of issues:
> > 1) The ports infrastructure shouldn't let you set options that don't make
> >    sense. 
> 
> I think that one could argue that it should be _hard_ to set options 
> that "don't make sense," but I don't think it should be impossible. you 
> have to keep in mind that we cater to a very diverse user community, 
> from rank beginners to advanced hackers.

True.  My opinion: A GUI that _prevents_ novice users from selecting
incompatible options is a good idea.  Expert users can always manually
tweak /var/db/ports/ files if they want to override those restrictions.

> > 2) Why is portupgrade dying on a warning message?  Why does a poor
> >    decision on one port prevent everything on my system from upgrading?
> 
> For the same reason that portmaster dies on errors, neither program is 
> omniscient. :)  If ports tools hit a point where it's not clear how to 
> proceed they _should_ stop and get user input. The next thing the users 
> generally say is that it should "somehow" proceed with the rest of the 
> upgrade, finish things that don't rely on the broken bits, etc. 
> Unfortunately that is quite a bit harder to do than you might think, 
> although patches are always welcome.

Understood.  But keep in mind that this was not an error, it was a
warning.  Perhaps the ports infrastructure doesn't differentiate between
those two as much as I think.

> > 3) The error from portupgrade does not immediately point me to the easy
> >    solution, it tricks me into thinking I have to hack the Makefile.
> 
> I don't actually think that the error message you're referring to is 
> from portupgrade, I think it's from the port itself.

I can see that.

-- 
Bill Moran
http://www.potentialtech.com



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