"Fetching archive" fails for all ports on multiple systems, different networks

[Ryan Schmidt]

On Apr 10, 2019, at 10:28, Lee Finn wrote:

> Hi, 
> 
> This is a more directed followup to an earlier message.  Three specific questions: 
> 
> * How should I interpret the error message  ":debug:archivefetch Fetching archive failed: The requested URL returned error: 403 OK”, which appears in the logfile for the installation of gettext?
> 	- Further context: this error message occurs for all gettext servers on two different networks (one a university network, one a home network) on two different systems, over several days. 
> * Is anyone else seeing a similar or related problems? Please share details: it will help me decide if this is somehow a local problem (although it is happening on two independently maintained systems on two different networks), or a macports problem for which a bug report should be filed. 

The web server appeared to return the response "403 OK". This is a nonsensical response, since http standards tell us that "403" actually means "Forbidden", while "200 OK" is the response you would get for a normal successful file transfer. Since you get the same nonsensical response from many servers managed by different organizations, it's logical to conclude that the response is not actually coming from those servers but from something intercepting the traffic between you and the servers -- such as a badly-configured proxy managed by your network administrator, or perhaps badly-written antivirus software installed on your computers which is hooking itself into your network stream in an effort to protect you from malicious content, or it could even be malware trying to modify your network traffic for some nefarious purpose. Usually a workaround for circumventing network interference is to use https, since man-in-the-middle content modification is not possible with an encrypted data stream, but your error messages in your previous message showed that even https traffic was being modified; in the https cases, though, the modifications were being detected as a bad ssl stream. The problem is unique to your computers and/or your networks and you'll have to figure out what is modifying your network traffic and how to stop it; there's nothing we can change in MacPorts to fix this.


> * “sudo port diagnose” reports "Error: currently installed version of Xcode, 10.2, is not supported by MacPorts.  For your currently installed system, only the following versions of Xcode are supported:  10.1 10.0”. Trac #58260 suggests that this is a build problem; i.e., that it occurs after a successful fetch step. Is this understanding correct? 
> 
> Other information: 
> MacPorts 2.5.4
> Mac OS 10.4.4
> xCode 10.2
> H/W: iMac Pro, MacBook Pro. 

Xcode 10.2 was released recently and we had not yet added it to the list of approved Xcode versions. Josh has since added it. It's usually fine to use new Xcode versions. As you found in #58260, sometimes new versions of Xcode cause build failures in some ports. As with any bug, these need to be identified and addressed on a case by case basis.