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It's been going for an age and things I have seen scroll past include such gems as libX11, ncurses and my personal favorite: perl5!

Is this normal?

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3 Answers

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python25 is a rather kitchen-sink build.

It depends on tk, which depends on Xft2 … that's where some X11 stuff comes from.

There's a script available to show all dependencies involved.

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up vote 0 down vote

You can manually edit the portfile to remove the dependency on tk, which is the main culprit.

sudo port edit python25

(Look for port:tk in the depends_lib section.)

I did this for awhile to keep MacPorts version of Getmail, but in the end, I just began to manually install Getmail instead.

I love both MacPorts and Fink, but I hate how quick they are to drag in whole new Python, Perl or Ruby installations. As a contrast, you might check out Rudix. It's a much thinner environment, though it doesn't support as many packages as MacPorts or Fink.

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Manually editing the Portfiles is a rather futile effort as the changes will be wiped out after a sync or selfupdate. If you find having tk being included to be a problem, file a ticket with the maintainers. – Nerdling Oct 1 '09 at 19:02
@Nerdling: as far as I can tell, the maintainers made a conscious decision to include tk. I don't think it's coming out. I agree that it's tedious to edit the portfile over and over, and so I eventually just installed Getmail manually (as I say in my post). – Telemachus Oct 1 '09 at 19:47
You could try filing a patch that adds a no_tk variant. Might not get accepted, but it's worth a shot. – mipadi Oct 27 '09 at 17:57
up vote 0 down vote

Macports installs in a separate location, I think /opt, so you don't have to worry about polluting your system.

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