Keeping track of automatically installed dependency-only ports

[Matthew Seaman]

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Doug Barton wrote:

> Personally I think that portmaster's approach is the right one. If you
> accidentally delete something that it turns out you really do need,
> you can always install it again. On the other hand, the presence of an
> empty +REQUIRED_BY file is a very reliable indication that something
> was previously installed as a dependency, but is no longer needed.

How about having a special meta-port that depends on all packages
directly installed by the user:

   packages-required-by-user-20070708

or some such.  Because this will automatically add a field to
+REQUIRED_BY it should give the desired behaviour of blocking (or at
least warning about) deinstalling wanted packages for all of the
ports management tools I know of.

It will need some hackery to have the dependency list of the
meta-port updated whenever the end user (de)installs a port/package
by name or decides that a package previously installed as a
dependency is needed in its own right (or vice versa)  Perhaps
something like the way OPTIONS processing works, except it
dynamically generates a RUN_DEPENDS list, and it should use the same
sort of trick as ports-mgmt/vulnerability-test-port -- ie. use the
date as its version number -- to ensure it gets updated frequently.

	Cheers,

	Matthew

- --
Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil.                   7 Priory Courtyard
                                                  Flat 3
PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey     Ramsgate
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