Subject: Proposed API changes before pkgsrc-2006Q1
To: None <tech-pkg@NetBSD.org, pkgsrc-users@NetBSD.org>
From: Roland Illig <rillig@NetBSD.org>
List: pkgsrc-users
Date: 03/09/2006 17:03:51
Hi,

since we are approaching another stable release of pkgsrc, the 
probability of pullup requests decreases continuously, so this is a good 
time for doing API changes that would be a burden to pull up to the 
stable branch.

The REPLACE_INTERPRETER forces package authors to define variables whose 
name starts with an underscore. And, even worse, this is _documented_ in 
the pkgsrc guide. Since a few minutes, the variables REPLACE.* and 
REPLACE_FILES.* can be used as aliases for _REPLACE.* and _REPLACE_FILES.*.

The SITES_* variables do not follow the naming conventions of 
parameterized variables, in which the parameterized part is separated by 
a "." instead of a "_".

Both changes work from now on. The remaining question is when to replace 
the use of the old variables with the use of the new ones.

Roland