On Dec 9, 2007, at 16:05, Tom McDonough wrote:
[snip]
There's one other result for this error message on Google now, from
just a week and a half ago:
http://www.ghostwheel.com/merlin/Personal/notes/2007/11/28/os-x-unix-
and-dont-you-forget-it/
It suggests that fontconfig's build process is trying to run the
"head" command (used for getting the first few lines of something)
but is instead finding the "HEAD" command (part of libwww-perl, which
retrieves the headers of a web page). Since the Mac's HFS+ filesystem
is case-insensitive, it treats these different scripts the same. Have
you installed libwww-perl through MacPorts (port name: p5-libwww-
perl), or perhaps manually e.g. using CPAN? Use "which head" to see
which head program is being used, and then prod it for some more
information. On my system, "which head" produces "/usr/bin/head" and
"file /usr/bin/head" says this:
/usr/bin/head: Mach-O universal binary with 2 architectures
/usr/bin/head (for architecture i386): Mach-O executable i386
/usr/bin/head (for architecture ppc): Mach-O executable ppc
This is what I expected: it's a universal binary, as it should be on
an Intel Mac. (If you have a PowerPC Mac, it should just be a ppc
executable.) If however it is reported to be a text file, then you
have a problem:
- If "which head" says it's in /usr/bin and it's a text file, then
you have the problem that you have manually installed libwww-perl and
it has overwritten your system's "head" command with its own "HEAD"
script, and you will need to restore the OS's "head" command from
your system DVD. I remember this very thing happening to me in the
early days of Mac OS X, back when I was still using Perl. :-)
[snip]
% file /usr/bin/head
/usr/bin/head: perl script text executable
So that means you have (perhaps inadvertently) installed libwww-perl,
a.k.a. LWP, perhaps using CPAN, perhaps as a dependency of some other
software you installed using CPAN, and it has overwritten your
system's "head" command (which is a vital utility) with an unrelated
and probably seldom-used perl script called "HEAD". I believe during
CPAN installation of libwww-perl, it asks if you would like to have
"HEAD" and other similar utility programs. I remember being
completely overwhelmed with all the questions CPAN would ask during
many of its installations, to the point that I would just answer each
question with the default (without really understanding them) until
the questions went away. Perhaps installation of these utility
scripts is the default, which would be bad on Mac OS X's case-
insensitive HFS+, as you can see.
However, I got my perl directly from the Apple install disk. Never
fooled around with it myself, unless the installation of some other
software changed it. Anyway, I can't live without perl. Are you
suggesting downloading perl from MacPorts as the best alternative?
You don't need to live without perl, you just need to live without
the "HEAD" script installed by the libwww-perl module, or if you do
need it, move it out of /usr/bin or rename it so that it does not
conflict with the system's "head" program. And be careful if you ever
need to upgrade libwww-perl that it doesn't go and overwrite "head"
again.
I have p5-libwww-perl installed through MacPorts (not sure why, must
be a dependency of something) and according to "port contents" it
does not include the HEAD script. So installing libwww-perl and
whatever other perl modules you need via MacPorts might be a safer
alternative to CPAN.
You can fix this problem now by inserting your Mac OS X DVD and
copying the correct "head" command from its /usr/bin to your hard
drive's /usr/bin. You may also want to copy over a backup copy (say, /
usr/bin/head-saved) in case you find yourself in this situation again
in the future and perhaps don't have your Mac OS X DVD handy.
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