No subject

some files either to /usr/local/texlive/texmf-local (or any other
place, depending on configuration) or to MacPorts, depending on what
other ports are installed, whether or not another TeX distribution is
installed (plus the user can easily delete those files or switch to a
different distribution or whatever).

On top of that the port in trace mode most probably won't install
anything at all.

To explain to others: this is an exact equivalent of a port trying to
figure out whether there is some existing python available and install
a python module to /some/path/in/users/home/dir/python/path/to/modules
instead of installing files to ${prefix}.

This really needs to be fixed. Installing files to
/usr/local/texlive/texmf-local *shouldn't be done*. And if done, you
really really really need to use a variant to install files to an
external location. By default the port should depend on a subset of
TeX Live as shipped by MacPorts and install files under ${prefix}.
Keep in mind that users could fetch the binary from the buildbot that
doesn't have MacTeX installed. So even if the user has all the paths
set properly, the port still won't work as intended.

Mojca