#20810: postgresql_select port request -------------------------------+-------------------------------------------- Reporter: apinstein@… | Owner: mww@… Type: request | Status: new Priority: Normal | Milestone: Component: ports | Version: Keywords: | Port: postgresql_select -------------------------------+-------------------------------------------- Comment(by apinstein@…): [sorry for the dupe wanted to fix formatting and don't see an edit button] Replying to [comment:8 ryandesign@…]:
Hmm, it hadn't occurred to me that the existence of a system version of something would be a criteria for having a _select port for it. My thought process was: There are multiple versions of PostgreSQL available in MacPorts that can be installed simultaneously. Users want to type "psql" to run a particular one of them. (Or perhaps they want to have scripts referencing /opt/local/bin/psql.) The solution I was proposing was to be able to "port select" one of them to create the appropriate symlink(s).
Is that a technical limitation or convention? I would agree with you from the end-user perspective that it shouldn't matter... Is there a link somewhere to the docs for _select? I couldn't find anything with a quick googling. There is also a difference between being able to switch between 2 versions but only having one installed and being able to have more than one installed at the same time. For instance people would want php 5.2 and 5.3 installed simultaneously moreso than with postgres, though I imagine that for *someone* having both installed at once will always be desirable. I'd think that a convention that installs things under versioned prefixes and then symlinks to the non-versioned would be nice. Ideal would be integrating something like Ruby's bundler which allows you on a per- directory basis to control which items mean what. Both solutions are probably useful. So something like: {{{ /opt/local/bin/pgsql83 /opt/local/bin/pgsql84 /opt/local/bin/pgsql -> /opt/local/bin/pgsql84 [created by select postgresql 8.4] }}} And then maybe something like: in /myproj/foo {{{ .ports == content of .ports === # alias port [version] psql postgresql 8.4 php php52 }}} And then when you CD into this directory a script would fire that would create a local .portsbin folder with appropriate aliases and munge your path appropriately as well, like: {{{ .portsbin/php -> /opt/local/bin/php52 .portsbin/psql -> /opt/local/bin/psql84 PATH=/myproj/foo/.portsbin:<existing path> }}} That would be boss. -- Ticket URL: <https://trac.macports.org/ticket/20810#comment:11> MacPorts <http://www.macports.org/> Ports system for Mac OS