#18359: Guide has wrong advice about variants -------------------------------------+-------------------------------------- Reporter: ryandesign@… | Owner: markd@… Type: defect | Status: new Priority: Normal | Milestone: Website & Documentation Component: guide | Version: 1.7.0 Keywords: | Port: -------------------------------------+-------------------------------------- Comment(by markd@…): I think I did it that way because that is the way I was told to do it way back. But it also seems to me that somewhere in the past I borked the hourly portindex function on macports because of a variant I used in the global section of a portfile. I think it was explained to me that variants in the global section of portfiles are evaluated by the macports box that does the portindex. So I thought that only certain keywords could be used within a variant declaration. That is what I recall, by way of explanation. If that is wrong or no longer true, then let's hash that out and I'd be happy to modify the guide accordingly. I do agree that it is clearer to put everything a variant does in the variant declarations much of the time. Also, realize that I recently started distinguishing in the guide between "platform variants" and "user-selected variants" (see reference section). If there is any truth to my recalled understanding above, perhaps it was the platform variants that caused the problem. If so, then that would change the user advice too; at the vary least it would mean only warning about being careful with platform variants instead of variants in general. So let me know if there is any truth at all to this and I'll be happy to correct the guide accordingly. -- Ticket URL: <http://trac.macports.org/ticket/18359#comment:2> MacPorts <http://www.macports.org/> Ports system for Mac OS