[MacPorts] #58018: MacPorts fails to run after manual install via tarball

[MacPorts]

#58018: MacPorts fails to run after manual install via tarball
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  Reporter:  dlo     |      Owner:  (none)
      Type:  defect  |     Status:  new
  Priority:  Normal  |  Milestone:
 Component:  base    |    Version:  2.5.4
Resolution:          |   Keywords:
      Port:          |
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Comment (by dlo):

 Replying to [comment:2 ryandesign]:
 > Installing without root privileges is possible but is not recommended
 because it is less secure.

 Even (especially?) to an experienced user, this feels confusing. Some
 documentation or explanation (even like the one here!) I think would allay
 a few questions from more experienced command-line users.

 Replying to [comment:2 ryandesign]:
 >
 > Configuring with a non-default prefix is possible but is not recommended
 because then you cannot benefit from our precompiled binaries and you will
 have to spend time compiling every port you want to install.

 Got it, yikes. Had no idea. Was wondering why building was so slow. :P

 A warning when running the command may be a good thing to remind unwary
 users of this.

 Replying to [comment:2 ryandesign]:
 >
 > I agree that we should add this information to our documentation.

 Is this something that a newbie like me could, or should?, cut from here
 and paste into a patch?

 Replying to [comment:2 ryandesign]:
 > >
 > > Well, odd, I thought, but I didn't specify anything outside of the
 ordinary so figured that this must have been a false alarm. (After some
 digging, it turns out that coreutils / GNU chmod acts differently than the
 one bundled into macOS. May want to check for that in the configure
 step...).
 >
 > That's correct. I guess we expect you to be using BSD chmod, as provided
 by Apple with macOS. Placing GNU utilities before BSD utilities in your
 PATH is a sure way to break things on macOS, so don't do that.

 😳

 Replying to [comment:2 ryandesign]:
 >
 > Replying to [comment:1 dlo]:
 > > Update: after removing coreutils chmod from my $PATH, the `make
 install` step still fails with the same error.
 >
 > Did you run `make clean` first, and rerun the `./configure` step? If
 not, try that.

 Nope. That was the issue (pretty sure, anyways).

 Replying to [comment:4 jmroot]:
 > Replying to [comment:2 ryandesign]:
 > > The message is correct. `sources_conf` must be set in macports.conf.
 It is set there by default, so you either removed it or perhaps you have
 an ancient copy of macports.conf from a previous MacPorts installation
 from before the `sources_conf` option existed.
 >
 > Or it doesn't exist because `make install` failed.

 Indeed, this was (is?) the problem.

-- 
Ticket URL: <https://trac.macports.org/ticket/58018#comment:5>
MacPorts <https://www.macports.org/>
Ports system for macOS