require_active_variants not sensibly honored during package installation

[howarth.at.macports@…]

The pymol package needs to have the syntax...

require_active_variants tcl "" corefoundation
require_active_variants tk "" quartz

honored in a reasonable manner during the package building/installaton. In particular, starting from a clean installation of MacPorts 2.3.2 on Yosemite, I executed...

sudo port -d install pymol

After the build, this results in an unusable installation of pymol because the require_active_variants fields were not honored at either the tcl/tk package build times or when the pymol package is built. I was forced to manually execute...

sudo port -d install tcl -corefoundation
sudo port -d install tk -quartz

to unbreak pymol afterwards. While I understand it is likely impossible for port to look ahead and know about the require_active_variants requirements of pymol when tcl/tk, I don't understand why they can't be honored at the time pymol is built by forcing the reinstallation of tcl and tk with the appropriate variants as dictated by the require_active_variants settings in the pymol Portfile.

[ryandesign (Ryan Carsten Schmidt)]

I think MacPorts base does not contain code that does what you want in this case. If you want the variant selections -corefoundation and -quzrtz to be passed to the tcl and tk ports, you have to specify them on the command line when you install pymol. The require_active_variants portgroup is not part of base and base doesn't know anything about it.

[larryv (Lawrence Velázquez)]

This is basically a dup of #126.

[SickTeddyBear]

Cc Me!

[ryandesign (Ryan Carsten Schmidt)]

Agreed.