Re: funny results with 'port list inactive'

James Berry <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
> On Aug 22, 2006, at 11:51 PM, Bryan Blackburn wrote:
> 
>> On Aug 22, 2006, at 10:34 PM, Wojciech Grzemski wrote:
>> [...]
>
> The pseudo portnames basically expand to a list of ports. By saying  
> "port list inactive" you are effectively passing each port on the  
> command line to list, which is giving you output for each. The  
> command has no opportunity to look at the request from a high level  
> and say "well, duh, there are no inactive ports.
> 
>> Note that the list command (from the man page) will "List all  
>> available ports" so any arguments to it are most likely  
>> superfluous, by my reading.  I think you want things like 'port  
>> installed' and perhaps 'port installed inactive' (but since I don't  
>> use port images, I can't test if this works).
> 
> Yes, sortof. But list will provide output about any specific ports  
> that you name for it. In the case of "port list apache2", it would  
> give list-style output about apache2. In the case of "port list all"  
> it will separately give output about each port. Note that "port list"  
> is a more efficient way to do the later, as it requires much less  
> processing by port.
> 
>>
>> The timing difference in 'port list all' is probably some  
>> multiplicative effect where it is running list for each port (and  
>> getting the same list each time) or something strange...
> 
> Yes, essentially so.

Thank you for the replies and all info. I guess I should read
documentation more carefully ;-). On the other hand, and this is
just a matter of personal taste, I still think that 'port list
[port|pseudo-port|selection]' is quite intuitive, unlike the
differentiation between 'port list' or 'port outdated' and commands
like 'port echo installed' etc. (You may wonder why my intuition
did not tell me to re-read the manual page, but that a different
story ;-))

Anyway, thanks again -- for the ports, for documentation and patience
in explaining how the innards work.

I'm in the process of writing couple of ports for Mathematica 
related scripts and programs (for a local repository at this point). 
And I was wondering if there is a wider need for such things. And
whether the fact that they are related to a math program, means that
they should go to a math category.  (The scripts are related to
version control of Mathematica notebooks, the programs work with
graphics output from the Mathematica)

All the best,

-- 
Wojciech Grzemski <[email protected]>            "On Margate Sands..."