migration hickup

[joerg van den hoff]

for the record and in case someone searches the mail archive: re-installing Macports from the .dmg 
installer solved the problem for me (no more warning messages regarding missing `macports' user).

out of curiosity: any ideas, why this warning message is issued in the first place after the 
Migration Assistant run? maybe the issue is fixable on the Macports side for the future (I have seen 
this with 10.15.7)?

thx,

joerg

On 08.03.21 21:12, joerg van den hoff wrote:
> 
> 
> 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
>>