Re: Release process (was Re: DarwinPorts 1.3.1)

I definitely prefer installing packages, but I am intriqued by the  
possibility that ports could be built routinely (by default) in a  
mode where they cannot read OR write anything they aren't 'sposed to.  
I can recall various episodes in the past where this would have been  
very nice indeed. The one thing that might also be added to that is a  
check to see if dregs of other installations that oughtn't be there  
are there--I'm thinking of situations where there is an incompatible  
piece of the current port left over from another installation, e.g.,  
from a different software distribution. By default, I think that a  
port trying to read or write something that is out of bounds per the  
conventions of the software distribution, or the existence of part of  
the port in the wrong place, ought to cause the build, or at least  
the installation, to abort.

Greg Shenaut

On Aug 2, 2006, at 9:09 PM, Jordan K. Hubbard wrote:

>
> On Aug 2, 2006, at 3:17 PM, Paul Guyot wrote:
>
>> Are you basically saying that trace mode should be used in  
>> production code to do the equivalent of --without-X in configure  
>> and enforce it during build and install phases?
>>
>> I was only thinking about using it for automatic testing. There  
>> are several reasons for not requiring its use in production code.  
>> For example, trace mode slows the installation process  
>> significantly. Besides, the mode isn't completely protected from a  
>> port that could get rid of it, for example by unsetting global  
>> variables. Finally, some dependencies cannot be detected because  
>> they only happen at runtime.
>
> I don't think there's any real distinction between "production  
> mode" and any other mode going forward.   End-user should (and want  
> to) be using packages.  Packages should be built by the DP project  
> on a regular basis for its users.  Building packages we can trust  
> will require using trace mode to sandbox builds.
>
> The only other people I would expect to be building stuff would be  
> the limited number of Portfile authors, and they'll also want to  
> use trace mode in their development process (at least at the  
> validation stage) to ensure that the Portfile is really correct.   
> End-users only build ports today because there are no packages, not  
> because end-users are good at building stuff (they're not) or enjoy  
> the process (they don't).  That makes the notion of a "faster  
> production mode" kind of irrelevant.
>
> - Jordan
>
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