(re)viewing messages/notes from installation

[Rainer Müller]

On 2012-05-07 21:07 , Mark Perkins wrote:
> So now my question is "why"?   Even though my tree is newer than what is
> installed, shouldn't I be able to see things relevant to my installation?

The 'port notes' command is always evaluating the current Portfile in
the ports tree. There is no way to get the notes of the installed port
version explicitly.

In this specific case, could it be that in one of the cases you are
using a separate port installation without startupitems? The notes are
only added if the variant +startupitem is selected.

Some more details for the curious and developers: the implementation of
notes predates registry2.0, with which we started to store the Portfile
in the registry. It would now be possible to show the notes for the
active version. However, such a change would have more implications for
the interface. For example, a command such as 'port info' can be useful
for both the current version in the tree, or the version currently
installed/active. Also it's unclear what 'ports notes' should show if
the port is not installed.

Rainer

PS: To keep things sorted, please take this topic to macports-dev
follow-ups about possible implementations.