Re: What does "Warning: No port … found in index" mean?

[Ryan Schmidt]

On Nov 17, 2020, at 20:04, Jim DeLaHunt wrote:

> Hi, folks:
> 
> In doing my daily `sudo port selfupdate` on 16 November UTC, I encountered a warning which is new to me:
> 
> "Warning: No port […portname…] found in index"
> 
> In redoing `sudo port selfupdate`, this warning did not reoccur.
> 
> What is the significance of this warning?  What, if anything, should I do about it?
> 
> The MacPorts output was something like this:
> 
> % sudo port selfupdate
> Password:
> Warning: No port libiconv found in the index.
> Warning: No port libiconv found in the index.
> Warning: No port expat found in the index.
> Warning: No port libiconv found in the index.
> --->  Fetching archive for jbig2dec
> …[elided remaining 170 lines]…
> 
> 
> The set of ports mentioned in the warnings were: expat, fribidi, libiconv, libunistring, libxml2, p11-kit, pango, python_select, python3_select, urw-fonts, xorg-libsm, xorg-libX11, xorg-libXaw, xorg-libxcb, xorg-libXcursor, xorg-libXext, xorg-libXfixes, xorg-libXi, xorg-libXinerama, xorg-libXrandr, xorg-libXScrnSaver, xorg-libXt, xorg-libXxf86vm, xorg-xcb-util, xpm, xrender.
> 
> I spot-checked a few of the ports. They are currently valid, installed ports, with one version active and one older version inactive.
> 
> What is this "index"?
> 
> Is this warning related to the upgrade of MacPorts base recently?
> 
> What is the significance of this warning?  What, if anything, should I do about it?


MacPorts uses a file on your computer called PortIndex to know what ports exist. When you run "port info" or "sudo port install" or any other command that refers to a port, MacPorts looks the port up in the index.

When you sync or selfupdate, you receive updated Portfiles from our server, and you receive a PortIndex that we generated on our server for your OS version.

Yesterday we had server problems that caused some of the PortIndex files we generated to be empty or incomplete, which would cause the warnings you experienced. The consequence is that you would not be able to install or upgrade those ports at that time. It has no effect on ports you have already installed.

We solved the server problem later in the day, so if you synced or selfupdated after we fixed it, that would have given you a correct PortIndex again.

See https://trac.macports.org/ticket/61507