MacPorts and /opt/local on Catalina and Big Sur read only volumes

[Tabitha McNerney]

Thank you Bjarne, this is great to know especially for those of us lagging
somewhat and getting ourselves more acquainted with the new volume formats
of Catalina and Big Sur, with Monterrey in the works. I would not be
surprised if Apple included the opt directory in /System/Volumes/Data
thanks in large part to MacPorts having a very long history of using /opt
and if I recall correctly Apple has long been supportive of MacPorts. What
a nice thing to learn today, making for a lovely day, in a world full of
noise and chaos. Have a great day and stay well.

-TM


On Fri, Jun 25, 2021 at 10:35 PM Bjarne D Mathiesen <
macintosh at mathiesen.info> wrote:

>
>
> Tabitha McNerney wrote:
> > Hi all,
> >
> > I haven't installed a fresh MacPorts system in quite some time but will
> > soon be doing so on a few Macs one running Catalina and the other Big
> > Sur. Starting with Catalina, the root volume / is read-only so how do
> > the MacPorts package installers set things up such that /opt/local can
> > remain the default path to MacPorts for both read and write
> > functionality on Catalina and Big Sur?
>
> /opt is one of the directories Apple defines at the / level as part of
> the Data Volume
>
> > Do the MacPorts package
> > installers make use of Apple's new bi-directional firmlinks capability
> > defined in /etc/synthetic.conf as also described on this page?
> >
> >
> https://derflounder.wordpress.com/2020/01/18/creating-root-level-directories-and-symbolic-links-on-macos-catalina/
>
> No. That's not necessary as /opt transparently exists and is writable.
>
> >
> > Thank you.
> >
> > -TM
>
> In depth explanations are here :
>
> https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/10/macos-10-15-catalina-the-ars-technica-review/11/#h1
>
> https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/11/macos-11-0-big-sur-the-ars-technica-review/11/#h1
>
> So, If you go to /System/Volumes/Data in Terminal & do 'ls -l' you'll
> see the opt directory.
>
> --
> Bjarne D Mathiesen
> Korsør ; Danmark ; Europa
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
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