Hi!

Thanks for bringing this up. I've been thinking about it for a while now.
Notes:
Ports like tcllib and tklib (ie. Tcl-only) should be fine with Tcl 8 or 9.
Ports like sqlite3-tcl we can try a few things.
Ports like tclthread may need a separate port for Tcl 9.

Last I checked, there was one tclthread for 8 and another for 9.
Maybe this has changed by now.


Stu


On Thu, 11 Jun 2026, Chris Billington wrote:

> The present databases/sqlite3-tcl port is built with MODTCL_VERSION = 8.6,
> producing /usr/local/lib/tcl/sqlite3/libsqlite3513.so
> 
> I am working on a tcl9 application (given that the 8.6 series has had its
> final release), so wanted to use the tcl9 version of the sqlite3 library and
> made a test port to suit. it seems libraries have been renamed in tcl9 to
> include the string 'tcl9' in the name, and the pkgIndex file handles this in
> cases that I have seen, but the tcl9 version of libraries is not built by the
> present ports.
> 
> The build goes fine, the tcl9 library (libtcl9sqlite3513.so) is built and
> works in basic testing.
> 
> However, it conflicts with the sqlite3-tcl port due to having identical
> pkgIndex.tcl, manpage and example files.
> 
> My question is how this might be handled in the future, preserving the
> availability of the tcl8.6 version of the library for legacy applications.
> 
> - have two ports, sqlite3-tcl and sqlite3-tcl9 with CONFLICTS =
> sqlite3-tcl-* ?
> - two mutually-exclusive flavors of a single port ?
> - or is there a way to have both installed at the same time, and overwrite the
> conflicting files on installation, which I guess breaks the convention to not
> touch files in another package?
> 
> Is there a precedent for this elsewhere? There are probably other ports like
> tcllib, tclthread that are currently not available for tcl9.
> 
> All advice, info welcome.
> 
> Chris
> 
> 
>