migration hickup

[joerg van den hoff]

On 08.03.21 21:01, Rainer Müller wrote:
> On 08/03/2021 17.44, joerg van den hoff wrote:
>> Now, after the data transfer completed, on the new machine I do have a
>> (seemingly/so far) working Macports installation: Migration Assistant actually
>> transferred the stuff in /opt, too.
>>
>> BUT, when now trying to selfupdate on the new machine, I get the message/warning:
>>
>> Warning: Failed to copy com.apple.dt.Xcode.plist to
>> /opt/local/var/macports/home/Library/Preferences: could not set owner for file
>> "/opt/local/var/macports/home/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dt.Xcode.plist":
>> user "macports" does not exist
>>
>> although `finger macports' reports for the new machine that the user is known
>>
>> Login: macports                   Name: MacPorts
>> Directory: /opt/local/var/macports/home    Shell: /usr/bin/false
>> Never logged in.
>> No Mail.
>> No Plan.
>>
>> as does `id macports'.
>>
>> what am I missing?
> 

thanks for your reply.

> I am not sure, but it might be that the message shown above is a bit inaccurate
> and it is the "macports" group that is missing?

the message says it can't set the *owner* so it seems to actually mean _user_ does not exist, no?

> 
> Please check that the user and group do exist for dscl (Directory Services):
> 
>    dscl . -read /Users/macports
>    dscl . -read /Groups/macports

yes, they do (no error messages, some reporting of properties). so I really don't see what is 
missing or has been broken by an seemingly incomplete transfer of information from the old 
machine.... basically, I don't understand how the machine can complain about "non-existent user 
macports" despite this seemingly not being true.

> 
> In any case, running the MacPorts install either from the .dmg or from source
> once again should recreate both the user and group named "macports".

just to be sure: re-installing will not confuse/corrupt the database regarding what is already 
installed via macports? I would prefer to keep /opt/local intact and usable...

best,
joerg

> 
> Rainer
>