what configuration files are read?

[Michael Stillwell]

How does "port" figure out which configuration files to read?  Mine is  
now trying to get configuration information from a non-existent file:  
I have a (source-compiled) version installed in /Ports, and then  
installed another temporary version into $HOME/scratch/ports (via ./ 
configure --prefix=$HOME/scratch/ports, to see whether a dependency  
problem with ncursesw had been fixed).  Running /Ports/bin/port now  
produces an error message:

boom:~$ /Ports/bin/port --help
sources_conf must be set in /Users/mjs/scratch/ports/etc/macports/ 
macports.conf or in your /Users/mjs/.macports/macports.conf file
     while executing
"mportinit ui_options global_options global_variations"
Error: /Ports/bin/port: Failed to initialize MacPorts, sources_conf  
must be set in /Users/mjs/scratch/ports/etc/macports/macports.conf or  
in your /Users/mjs/.macports/macports.conf file

Where is it getting the "scratch" directory from?  There's nothing in  
$HOME/.macports except for a history file, and there's nothing in my  
environment either.  /Ports/bin/ports itself appears to be unchanged,  
and rgrep over the /Ports directory gives nothing as well.

Also, why does "make install" require root privileges?  I tried to  
install without "sudo" to try to prevent the temporary install from  
making changes to my existing configuration files, but it won't  
actually install this way.




--M.

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