Macports's buggy configure scripts

[Ryan Schmidt]

On May 8, 2008, at 9:43 PM, Shreevatsa R wrote:

> The site doesn't seem to be working, so reporting a bug here:

Parts of the web site may be down or weird for a few days as William  
continues to stabilize the system following the recent site upgrades.  
Hopefully we'll soon be back to normal.

> The guide says that to install two different MacPorts copies, one must
> use --with-tclpackage. But try this:
> ./configure --prefix=PREFIX1 --with-tclpackage=TCLPREFIX1 && make &&
> make install

Ok, you're requesting to install a copy of MacPorts into PREFIX1.

> ./configure && make && make install.

Now you're requesting a second copy be installed in the default  
prefix, /opt/local.

> Now go in /opt/local and grep for TCLPREFIX1.
> Sigh.
>
> Actually, even installing two different things:
> ./configure --prefix=PREFIX1 --with-tclpackage=TCLPREFIX1 && make &&
> make install
> ./configure --prefix=PREFIX2 --with-tclpackage=TCLPREFIX2 && make &&
> make install
> did not work for me -- installing from the second prefix's binary
> would install it under the first prefix.

I tested this second recipe, and I see that the second "make" doesn't  
do anything; it says "Nothing to be done for `all'" many times. "make  
install" then succeeds, installs everything in PREFIX2, and I agree  
that TCLPREFIX1 does appear in port, portf (a symlink to port),  
portindex and portmirror in PREFIX2/bin, which is clearly not what  
one wants.

"make clean" before trying to configure a second time solves this.  
I'm not sufficiently well-versed in the make system to know whether  
that's to be expected or not. When I build MacPorts from source, I  
personally always "make clean" after I'm done so I don't run into any  
weirdness the next time.

> Somehow, it doesn't surprise me at all that even MacPorts's own
> configure scripts are broken.

You're implying that a lot of MacPorts is broken. We can only fix  
what people report as broken, and what we know how to fix. Please  
file bugs as you find things that are wrong. If you know how to fix  
the problem, of course please tell us how in the ticket or attach a  
patch; that should make it quicker to fix.

> Someone correct me if I'm wrong.