macports localinstall github tries to download from macports

[Ken Cunningham]

it takes some work sometimes to make the github PortGroup obey your bidding:


you know that you want this file:

https://github.com/snabb/downtimed/archive/version-1.0.tar.gz


you would have thought that setting:

github.tarball_from archive


would work to get you that file, but it does not, because the github portgroup generates this url instead:

https://github.com/snabb/downtimed/archive/1.0/downtimed-1.0.tar.gz


and there is nothing at that URL. Ergo your 404 error.

This can be very frustrating. Some package mangers just let you put in the whole URL you want -- that is nice :> -- but it bypasses a feature MacPorts wants to have, which is distfile mirroring, which is nice when it works.

You can see the URL the github PG generates by using

port distfiles

and then just monkey around with options until it matches a place where there is a file.

In practical terms for right now, if you remove this line:

github.tarball_from archive



and you should be OK

port distfiles will tell you.

I often paste the URL I want into the portfile as a comment, and then keep monkeying around with the GitHub PG settings until I get something.

Anybody who tells you it is very easy and you're missing something obvious just forgets what it was like before they knew how to manhandle the github PG :>

Ken