From: Ingo Schwarze <schwarze@usta.de>
Subject: Re: bsd.port.mk: stop checking for whatis.db
To: Klemens Nanni <kn@openbsd.org>
Cc: ports@openbsd.org
Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2026 19:34:36 +0100

Hi Klemens,

Klemens Nanni wrote on Fri, Jan 16, 2026 at 04:16:37PM +0000:

> It's been long enough, I think.

Indeed.  By now, if someone has /usr/X11R6/man/whatis.db, i guess
that's more likely due to them installing some alternative manual
page handling tool (even though i'm not aware of anyone packaging
traditional BSD whatis) than due to not updating the system for
more than a decade.  And even if not updating for a decade is what
is actually going on, erroring out hard seems the better option
compared to shoving the issue under the carpet, so OK schwarze@.

I'm not sure i'm the best person to provide an OK in /infrastructure/,
but your patch certainly survived my testing and looks very reasonable,
so FWIW i think you can go ahead.

Yours,
  Ingo


> Feedback? OK?
> 
> Index: infrastructure/mk/bsd.port.mk
> ===================================================================
> RCS file: /cvs/ports/infrastructure/mk/bsd.port.mk,v
> diff -u -p -r1.1646 bsd.port.mk
> --- infrastructure/mk/bsd.port.mk	24 Oct 2025 14:25:34 -0000	1.1646
> +++ infrastructure/mk/bsd.port.mk	16 Jan 2026 16:10:09 -0000
> @@ -133,11 +133,7 @@ FIX_EXTRACT_PERMISSIONS ?= No
>  FIX_CLEANUP_PERMISSIONS ?= No
>  
>  .if !exists(${X11BASE}/man/mandoc.db)
> -.  if exists(${X11BASE}/man/whatis.db)
> -ERRORS += "Your X11/system is not current"
> -.  else
>  ERRORS += "Fatal: building ports requires correctly installed X11"
> -.  endif
>  .endif
>  
>  # stuff common to bsd.port.mk and bsd.port.subdir.mk