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List:       macports-users
Subject:    Re: Does MacPorts need ALL of Xcode?
From:       Ian Wadham <iandw.au () gmail ! com>
Date:       2021-09-27 21:36:03
Message-ID: 8C770ED5-7E5D-4EC9-B469-73EC1FD74889 () gmail ! com
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Hello Chris,

> On 27 Sep 2021, at 8:42 am, Chris Jones <jonesc@hep.phy.cam.ac.uk> wrote:
> The majority of ports will indeed build fine with just the CLT installed.

So what is the "recipe" to install just the CLT with no version of Xcode present? And \
can that recipe be included in the MacPorts Guide?

> There are a number though where the build does indeed require a complete Xcode \
> installation, which is why the baseline recommendation is to install Xcode. However \
> if you are ok with perhaps running into the occasional port failure (the likelihood \
> for which depends on which ports you use) you likely can get by just fine with just \
> the CLT.

Couldn't those ports list Xcode as a build dependency?

If a dependency has to be another MacPorts package, then perhaps there could be a \
dummy Xcode in MacPorts, maybe just a Portfile, that checks the presence and version \
of the Xcode.app.

Otherwise, new MacPorts users may be paying a 20Gb disk storage penalty forever more. \
And the time to download and install Xcode could become a disincentive for new \
MacPorts users in any case…

Cheers, Ian Wadham.

> Chris
> 
> > On 26 Sep 2021, at 10:07 am, Mircea Trandafir <tramir@hotmail.com> wrote:
> > 
> >  I've been using only the command line tools for more than a year with \
> > absolutely no issues (other than the occasional "version not detected" error, but \
> > I think that happens with Xcode too). 
> > -- 
> > Mircea Trandafir
> > Associate professor
> > Department of Economics
> > University of Southern Denmark
> > Campusvej 55, 5230 Odense M
> > Denmark
> > Email: mircea.trandafir@sam.sdu.dk
> > Web: http://www.mirceatrandafir.com
> > 
> > > On Sep 26, 2021, at 5:52 AM, Ian Wadham <iandw.au@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > 
> > > Hi guys,
> > > 
> > > I have recently upgraded my MacOS from High Sierra 10.13 to Catalina 10.15, \
> > > mainly because I would like to start playing with a package called Flutter, \
> > > which has a dependency on Xcode 12+ in its MacBook version. 
> > > It appears that Xcode is following some variant of Grosch's Law, or maybe \
> > > Parkinson's Law (software expands to fill the hardware space available to it). \
> > > So I am wondering, if all a user needs are some MacPorts packages, whether it \
> > > is necessary to install all (or even any) of Xcode just to get the command-line \
> > > tools. 
> > > I have been using MacPorts to get access to FOSS for more than 10 years and \
> > > have watched the Xcode requirement grow from around 1 Gb of disk to around 20 \
> > > Gb in Catalina. In Xcode 9, on High Sierra, the requirement was around 10 Gb. \
> > > So it has roughly doubled in two version steps of MacOS. 
> > > At first I used to regard the Xcode overhead as being like some sort of tax on \
> > > the pleasure of using FOSS, but now it is taking up an unhealthy portion of the \
> > > 250 Gb in my MacBook Pro's 250 Gb internal SSD drive. 
> > > I have to put up with this if I wish to use Macports and Flutter, even though, \
> > > like Dave Horsfall, I am unlikely to use Xcode as an IDE. So is it possible to \
> > > have MacPorts depend on some minimal subset of Xcode? 
> > > Cheers,
> > > Ian Wadham.
> > > 


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