Hi guys,

Over on the mailing list for Macports, which provides ports of
open source software on Apple Mac OS X, we are having a
discussion about kbuildsycoca4, its effect on ports of KDE
libraries and applications and when and whether to run it.

The other day I installed kdesdk4 on my Apple Macbook and
tried to run Kompare, but it failed with a KMessageBox saying
that its view part was missing.  I tried again from the command
line and got a message suggesting I run kbuildsysoca4.  I did,
and Kompare suddenly sprang to life.  So did another KDE app
that has been broken for a long time on my Apple desktop.

On my Linux system I have not had to run kbuildsycoca in all the
ten years or so I have been working on KDE.  So when does KDE
run it?  As part of the build and install process for KDE libs and apps?
Whenever you run an app?  Whenever you start the KDE desktop?

Also it would be helpful if someone could point me to some doco
on the *architecture* of KDE.  What background processes run?  What
do they do?  What are the interactions between them?  What is the
sequence of processes and events when the KDE desktop starts?

Which of those processes are necessary for running KDE apps?
Which can be omitted or "bound off" somehow if you are not running
on a KDE desktop?

I googled, of course, to find out more about kbuildsycoca4, but found
nothing except links like this:

    http://systemexplorer.net/file-database/file/kbuildsycoca4-exe

Try googling with What is kbuildsycoca4?  Apparently some Windows
people think it could be malware!  Other top hits showed widespread
puzzlement and dismay and several broken KDE apps (on other platforms),
such as Amarok.  It is not a good look for KDE and I think KDE's many fine
applications deserve a better chance.

BTW I did find the Techbase pages on KService.  They told me what
SyCoCa and kbuildsycoca4 are, but did not answer the above questions.

All the best, Ian W.


>> Visit http://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-devel#unsub to unsubscribe <<