Why so many ports have run-dependencies on non-system gcc versions?

[Chris Cowart]

Yuri wrote:
> When I tried to delete gcc-4.3.4_20090517 I got this message:
> pkg_delete: package 'gcc-4.3.4_20090517' is required by these other packages
> and may not be deinstalled:
> blas-1.0_3
> cgnslib-2.5.3_1
> fftw3-3.2
> fftw3-float-3.2_1
> fr-med-2.3.5
> getdp-1.2.1_7
> gmsh-2.3.1
> lapack-3.2.1
> libofa-0.9.3_3
> libsamplerate-0.1.7_1
> octave-3.0.5_1
> suitesparse-3.3.0
> 
> When I tried to delete gcc-4.2.5_20090325 I got this:
> pkg_delete: package 'gcc-4.2.5_20090325' is required by these other packages
> and may not be deinstalled:
> pdftk-1.41
> 
> Why all these ports depend on gcc?
> They may want to compile with different gcc therefore incurring the 
> build-dependency.
> But why I can't now uninstall those gccs? Looks like they are all 
> run-dependency.


gcc provides a shared library that some applications link to. Take for
example:

ccowart dev-aux bin $ ldd sabcmd 
sabcmd:
        libsablot.so.70 => /usr/local/lib/libsablot.so.70 (0x2807f000)
        libiconv.so.3 => /usr/local/lib/libiconv.so.3 (0x28148000)
        libexpat.so.6 => /usr/local/lib/libexpat.so.6 (0x2823d000)
        libstdc++.so.6 => /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6 (0x2825d000)
        libm.so.5 => /lib/libm.so.5 (0x28352000)
        libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x28367000)
        libc.so.7 => /lib/libc.so.7 (0x28372000)

I can see this as being a real reason why a particular gcc needs to be
around at runtime. Look at the dynamic linking information with ldd. If
it doesn't depend on a file provided by those versions of gcc, it's
probably an inaccuracy in the port's dependency list.

-- 
Chris Cowart
Network Technical Lead
Network & Infrastructure Services, RSSP-IT
UC Berkeley
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