[MacPorts] #44494: p5.xx-modul -> is macports creating another "RPM" hell?

[MacPorts]

#44494: p5.xx-modul -> is macports creating another "RPM" hell?
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  Reporter:  ora.et.labora@…  |      Owner:  macports-tickets@…
      Type:  request          |     Status:  new
  Priority:  Normal           |  Milestone:
 Component:  base             |    Version:  2.3.1
Resolution:                   |   Keywords:
      Port:                   |
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Comment (by larryv@…):

 Replying to [comment:2 ora.et.labora@…]:
 > I'm getting flooded with various "versions" of mysql, php, python,
 > ruby, gcc et cetera. Why the need for mysql, mysql5, mysql56 and so
 > on?

 There’s always a valid argument to be made for allowing ports to depend on
 specific versions of other ports, for stability.

 We usually don’t find this necessary, which is why MacPorts doesn’t really
 support it. We patch ports to work with newer libraries, report bugs
 upstream, and so on. It’s annoying, but less annoying than versioning.

 However, some software changes so much between versions and is critical to
 so much other software that we //have to// keep multiple versions around,
 or a ton of other stuff would break. Compilers (`gcc*`, `clang*`,
 `llvm*`), language implementations (`python*`, `perl*`, `ruby*`), and
 databases (`mysql*`, `postgresql*`) are the usual culprits.

 Perl is a special case; it’s sufficiently backwards-compatible that we’re
 considering going back to providing only one Perl.

 > And if so, why not have "mysql" as base reference, i.e. always refers
 > to the latest version.

 In practice, no one’s thought about doing that, and many versioned ports
 already use `port select` to let users achieve similar functionality. For
 example, `sudo port select --set python python34` creates several symlinks
 (such as `$PREFIX/bin/python`) that point to specific files provided by
 `python34`.

 Having a “latest” port sounds nice, until it updates on you and breaks
 everything horribly. (Imagine if we’d had a `python` port when the PSF
 released Python 3.) If a particular piece of software wouldn’t have this
 problem, then it shouldn’t have versioned ports to start with.

-- 
Ticket URL: <https://trac.macports.org/ticket/44494#comment:3>
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