installing MacPorts 2.6.2 on Ubuntu Linux 20.04

Fri May 1 02:07:32 UTC 2020

Can I express a thought about this? :) I hope I won’t result too naive. 

I think the effort of making Macports cross-platform could be destined to something else. On Linux there's a wide plethora of package managers that fulfill basically all the needs Macports would fulfill. Just to take something as an example: 

* Pacman on Arch provides pre-compiled binaries plus the AUR repository of packages that can be compiled at will (variants are missing, tho)

* Nix, that I think it's probably the most "correct" package manager currently available over there. 

* Spack, something like Nix, but optimized for HPC (so cross-compiling, architecture optimization and so on).

but I'm surely missing other cool projects. 

IMHO Macports should focus exclusively on macOS. As a contributor to Spack, Macports (and EasyBuild in the past), I found the TCL based system very hard to grasp w.r.t. Python-class based packages. That's probably because I'm more proficient in Python, but I think it's undeniable that Python is an easier language to pick and gradually learn, and with could also argue on the fact that an Object-Oriented approach to package description is easier to maintain (I don't know, I find it easier than the scripts we use in Macports). 

IMHO Macports should focus into potentiating the major selling points it has, again I pick something I have in mind myself:

* Native build of libraries and its dependencies
* Compatibility with old macOS versions
* Vast Linux and Unix selection of packages

and improve some aspects that could be improved:

* Abandon (not abruptly…) TCL for a more modern language, possibly more mainstream, that could enlarge the audience of possible contributors for packages
* Is the core written in C? I even don't know, but if it is, is it needed for performance reasons?
* Improve compatibility and performances of "Linux-polarized" libraries (e.g. Inkscape and GTK stuff)
* Provide pre-compiled binaries also for variants to speedup installation for non-dev users
* Improve community engagement (e.g. switching mailing list to Discourse [it ships mailing list mode if you prefer to communicate this way, but it would improve indexing and searchability], IRC --> Matrix, and so on. Just suggesting...)

Is there a Roadmap for the development of Macports? Is there somewhere where I can see what was discussed and which direction Macports has been thought to take? I would really like to participate, also as a way to learn something from most of you that are way more skilled then me. I prefer Macports approach w.r.t. Homebrew, and I'd like that people would be able to evaluate more fairly the two solutions, maybe avoiding the difficult initial slope associated to TCL and C-Core.

Tell me what you think, and sorry if I'm being too naive on some points. I'm a fairly recent member and reader of the mailing list, I could have missed some important discussions.

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https://rdb.is

On 1 May 2020 at 03:37:28, Ken Cunningham (ken.cunningham.webuse at gmail.com) wrote:

I thought I would start up a short thread on progress with this --  
MacPorts on Linux. We've long written the Portfiles with this in mind.  
This was done on an Intel system, with the current Ubuntu 20.04. Ubuntu  
19.10 can be installed in a VM in parallels, and no doubt in other VM  
systems.  

Some quick notes:  

apt is the built-in package manager, similar to "port".  

"sudo apt install" is the same as "sudo port install".  

"apt info" is "port info"  

"apt-file show" does something similar to "port contents", but the  
software does not have to be installed.  

After downloading the MacPorts source tarball, and prior to building  
MacPorts, you must install the supporting software that comes already on  
Macs that MacPorts expects to find.  

These were installed as:  

sudo apt install mtree-netbsd  
sudo apt install tcl8.6  
sudo apt install curl  
sudo apt install sqlite3  
sudo apt install gnustep  
sudo apt install libcurl4-gnutls-dev  
sudo apt install libsqlite3-dev  

my system already had llvm-10 and clang-10 installed, and there was  
already a symlink "port" linking /usr/bin/clang to the selected clang  
binary, in this case clang-10.  

Then build and install MacPorts as usual, into /opt/local  

./configure && make && sudo make install  

Add to your PATH as usual, but on Ubuntu, by editing ".bashrc", adding:  

export PATH=/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:$PATH  

Adding that PATH to the sudo command is harder -- it doesn't pick it up  
from the above ".bashrc". You have add it to the sudoers command with:  

sudo visudo  

and then add it to the secure_path  

Defaults  
secure_path="/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/snap/bin"  

There are some differences between Darwin and Ubuntu, and to work around  
some of these that are not already compensated for by MacPorts base, I  
did this:  

edit macports.conf  

sudo gedit /opt/local/etc/macports/macports.conf  

and add:  

buildmakejobs            2                  # or a more appropriate  
number for your processor count  
default_compilers      clang            # compiler selection is broken,  
this chooses /usr/bin/clang which works best with macport's portfiles  
cxx_stdlib                   libstdc++     # configure.cxx_stdlib seems  
broken, this fills in appropriate default  

After that, darwin and ubuntu supply 'sed' in different locations, so  
rather than edit 200 Portfiles, you can do this:  

sudo ln -s /bin/sed /usr/bin/sed  

and then you're up and running. Ports will at least start to build.  
There are a number of hiccups, where the portfile logic does not allow a  
path where the platform is other than "darwin" -- e.g. libuv, but these  
are easy to spot and easy to fix if desired. Some things appear harder  
to fix, like "m4" which I have not yet sorted out.  

And then you can play around. I don't know if MacPorts on Ubuntu (or any  
other flavour of Linux) will ever be popular, but you can at least get  
started.  

Best,  

Ken  

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