How To Troubleshoot MacPorts

[Joshua Root]

Michael Newman wrote:
>> On Apr 12, 2019, at 06:19, Ryan Schmidt <ryandesign at macports.org> wrote:
>> 
>> It's difficult to answer a question this broad. But I can tell you a little about how I answer port build failure bug reports or posts on the list.
> 
> Thank you for taking the time to write such an interesting and informative post. 
> 
> I suppose the root of my problem is that while I have a basic understanding of how to use MacPorts, I have very little knowledge about how it actually works. 
> 
> For example, I’ve been confused as to why some ports generate a config log and some don’t. You explained that. 
> 
> I suppose the takeaway from your post is that I should take more time to study other threads and learn from them. My failure is to only read this list when I have a problem of my own to solve. That’s a poor strategy for learning. 
> 
> Thanks again for taking the time to write.

If you're looking for an introduction to MacPorts internals, there's
this: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46qshiDskrM>

There's also some (brief) information at
<https://guide.macports.org/#internals> and
<https://github.com/macports/macports-base/blob/master/doc/INTERNALS>.

It would be nice to have some documentation that would ease the reader
into this stuff without them having to have a development background.
But due to the nature of what build systems do and what can go wrong
with them, it would need to introduce a lot of development concepts to
be able to help in figuring out why a build failed.

- Josh