Joerg Sonnenberger writes:
 > See databases/slony1 for a possible way to deal with it. I don't exactly
 > like it, but so far it was the only package where it is needed. The
 > requirement to abstract it was nil for that reason.

Thanks for the pointer. 

As a quick summary for the mailing list, the solution used for slony1
includes the following in the packge Makefile:

     DEPENDS+=	postgresql${PGSQL_VERSION}-server-[0-9]*:../../databases/postgresql${PGSQL_VERSION}-server
     .include "../../mk/pgsql.buildlink3.mk"

Doesn't this lead to a dependency on _both_ the server and the client?

I'm not sure what the requirements for slony1 are, but I am needing a
dependency on _only_ the server, not the client.  In fact, it would be
incorrect to arbitrarily create a needless dependency on the client.

Is there a compelling reason not to handle this in some way?  If not,
are there any specific suggestions besides the two I gave earlier?
Are there any feelings for which option is preferred?

Thanks again for your feedback.

Cheers,
Brook