How to get out of this foolish position?

[Ryan Schmidt]

On Nov 4, 2006, at 14:34, Taka Fukuda wrote:

>     When I tried to remove a package, I got
>
> fukuda at quadra:~% sudo port -f uninstall perl5.8
> --->  Unable to uninstall perl5.8 5.8.8_0+darwin_8, the following  
> ports depend on it:
> --->    p5-xml-parser
> --->    autoconf
> --->    automake
> --->    gnome-mime-data
> --->    vnc
> Warning: Uninstall forced.  Proceeding despite dependencies.
> --->  Uninstalling perl5.8 5.8.8_0+darwin_8
>
>     It seemed that the uninstall was successful,

I agree; that looks normal and successful.


>     but when I tried to install it, I got
>
> fukuda at quadra:~% sudo port -f install perl5.8
> --->  Installing perl5.8 5.8.8_0+darwin_8
> Error: Target com.apple.install returned: Registry error: perl5.8  
> 5.8.8_0+darwin_8 already registered as installed.  Please uninstall  
> it first.
> Error: Status 1 encountered during processing.
> fukuda at quadra:~%
>
>     I repeated these commands with some other options, but
>     neither of them did not work.  I cannot
>     install or uninstall Perl, and this prohibits porting of
>     many other packages.

That is odd. What does...

	port installed perl5.8

...say now? Does it still list perl5.8? Is perl5.8 in fact installed?  
Are any of the files it provides still on your hard disk? For  
example, on my system...

	port contents perl5.8

...tells me that perl5.8 provides many things, including /opt/local/ 
bin/perl. Does that still exist on your system? What does...

	ls -l /opt/local/bin/perl

...say? What does...

	port provides /opt/local/bin/perl

...say?