[rt-users] why does the freebsd port have 200+ dependancies?

[Jo Rhett]

On Jan 27, 2009, at 1:33 PM, Steven Kreuzer wrote:
>> In particular, it installed 120-something X11 apps and libraries on  
>> a machine which doesn't have X11, will never have X11, and  
>> explicitly has WITHOUT_X11=yes in /etc/make.conf.   So it's being  
>> overridden somewhere.
>
> graphics/graphviz requires X11 to build so WITHOUT_X11 is ignored  
> for that port.

This is incredibly non-functional.  The 2 - count them - 2, TWO  
reports which produce graphs do very elementary graphs that don't  
require 1/100th of the functionality of the GD library, nevermind  
whatever GraphViz brings to the table.  This is an incredible bloat  
with no functional purpose.

>> I have now removed 100-something of these ports and RT continues to  
>> operate and function in every way, without any difficulty.  After  
>> every 10 or so ports I remove (usually in the same dependancy  
>> branch) I stop and retest every function RT provides.
>
> I assume you haven't been testing the "Reports" function.

Yes, I am.  I have at this point removed every X11-related port I can  
find, and nothing in Reports has broken.

>> Before I continue to waste my time trying to figure out why so many  
>> things are enabled, could you as a maintainer perhaps address the  
>> question of why so many extra ports are added?
>
> Because RT requires them.

See above.  It does not appear that GraphViz requires any of the X11  
functionality.  It's port might think so, but functional practice  
would disagree.  (for at least whatever RT requires of it)

>> Note to RT Maintainers: it would be nice if you documented the  
>> explicit list of dependancies rather than forcing us to read the  
>> code to figure it out.
>
> http://portsmon.freebsd.org/portdependencytree.py?category=www&portname=rt38


The actual dependancies -- not the ones included by the freebsd port.   
It's clear and easy to read in Makefile.cpan ;-)

-- 
Jo Rhett
Net Consonance : consonant endings by net philanthropy, open source  
and other randomness