Where is/does/can MacPorts disable assert()s in C++ code?

[Leo Singer]

On Mar 17, 2013, at 12:15 AM, Ryan Schmidt <ryandesign at macports.org> wrote:

> 
> On Mar 16, 2013, at 19:31, Leo Singer wrote:
> 
>> I am preparing a new Portfile submission, HTCondor, http://research.cs.wisc.edu/htcondor/. The port is not working as expected, and I am almost certain that it is because a bug in the upstream source where some critical code is placed in a C++ assert() call, and is being preprocessed away to nothing. I have not discovered if or how the '-DNDEBUG' compiler flag is being passed to wipe out assertions; the text 'NDEBUG' doesn't show up in the MacPorts debug-level output (sudo port -d install).
>> 
>> Is there any other mechanism by which MacPorts or CMake would or does disable assertions by default?
>> 
>> This package is built with CMake and I am using the CMake portgroup.
> 
> The cmake portgroup creates a debug variant (which changes CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE from "Release" to "debugFull"). Does it work if you use that?

No, it doesn't---strangely.