Thanks for the info. This is not my system, someone else let it get to this state, and I have been given the task to get it working. It looks like Macports was installed but never used. Running the installer sounds like a good plan (wiping the disk with a reinstall of MacOS from scratch sounds like a better plan;-).
"MacOS 11.12" is a typo on my part: it should be 10.12. Thanks again. On Fri, Aug 28, 2020 at 8:31 PM Ryan Schmidt <ryandes...@macports.org> wrote: > > On Aug 28, 2020, at 13:00, Brian T. Carcich wrote: > > > Context > > > > I am a consultant > > - I have used Macports, but am by no means an expert > > - with only SSH-only access, > > - root access (via sudo) > > - brought in to build a particular X-windows app on this Mac > > - Motif (libXm) is one missing piece of the puzzle (at least) > > - the app builds elsewhere with little trouble, including my ancient > AirBook, but I have that in my hot little hands > > Darwin 16.7.0 ca. June, 2017, x86_64-apple-darwin16.7.0 > > Xcode version [gcc --version]: Apple LLVM version 9.0.0 > (clang-900-0.39.2) > > Macports version: 1.9.2, under /opt/local/*/macports/ > > - 13 ports total > > If you're running MacPorts 1.9.2, that's very out of date. We released > MacPorts 2.0.0 on July 21, 2011 and the current version is 2.6.3. MacPorts > is designed under the expectation that you will keep up to date by running > "sudo port selfupdate" and "sudo port upgrade outdated" occasionally, but > certainly at least once a year. We remove some port upgrade paths after > they have been in place for one year, so waiting longer than that will > result in some upgrade failures that you'll have to puzzle out on your own > or ask us about later. > > It is our intention that "sudo port selfupdate" should be able to upgrade > you from old versions of MacPorts base to newer ones, but we certainly > would not have tested upgrading from a version that old and it is possible > that something in the selfupdate upgrade process has broken for such use > cases. > > You should always be able to bypass selfupdate problems and upgrade to the > latest version by downloading the latest MacPorts installer package for > your OS version from https://distfiles.macports.org/MacPorts/ and running > it. You can run installer packages from the command line using the > "installer" command. (Read "man installer".) You should still manually > update all conf files under /opt/local/etc/macports. > > What's more concerning is that you're running macOS 10.12, but you're > using a version of MacPorts base that dates from a time when the latest > version of Mac OS X was 10.6. This should never have worked. > > Is it possible that you installed your ports while you were using Mac OS X > 10.6 and later upgraded to macOS 10.12? Hoping this was working all the way > back in MacPorts 1.9.2, you can check if that's the case by running the > following command, showing you all ports that were installed while not on > Darwin 16: > > port -v installed | grep -v 'darwin 16' > > If it shows any such ports, then after upgrading MacPorts base you should > upgrade them (if they're outdated) or rebuild them (if not outdated). > > Normally I would refer you to: > > https://trac.macports.org/wiki/Migration > > but you mentioned that uninstalling all ports would be difficult due to a > MacPorts-provided ssh daemon. > > > > So far ... > > > > Finally got [selfupdate] to finish by changing rsync_dir in macports.conf > > - per https://trac.macports.org/ticket/53414 > > - but it still says "base version 1.9.2 installed," and "Warning: No > version file found, please rerun selfupdate," and "MacPorts base is > probably trunk or a release candidate" > > - [-d selfupdate] fails to parse 11 of the 13 ports > > > > [upgrade outdated] yields "Error: Unable to open port: invalid command > name 'port::register_callback'" > > - nothing useful from The Google so far > > - [-d] output below > > Don't bother trying to troubleshoot any port upgrade failures with a > MacPorts base version that old. Our ports collection is written with the > assumption that you are using the latest MacPorts base. Upgrade base first. > For example, "port::register_callback" is a procedure that wasn't added to > MacPorts base until version 2.2.0, and some port or portgroup is using it > now, but naturally MacPorts 1.9.2 wouldn't know about it. > > -Ryan > > > > > My question > > > > My gut feel is that this is a hopelessly outdated installation of > Macports. Rather than shaving the yak and googling as each new problem > crops up, is it reasonable to consider removing whatever Macport is there > and starting over? I am not even confident that the [uninstall] option > would work. > > It is always possible to uninstall, if you want to; instructions are here: > > https://guide.macports.org/chunked/installing.macports.uninstalling.html > > > > N.B. [uninstall] is not a solution if the SSH daemon is a Macport, as I > would lose access. > > > > Or do I need someone local to the machine to poke around from the GUI or > RDP? > > > > Thanks in advance, > > > > Brian Carcich > > > > > > Output of [-d ugrade outdated] > > ncursesw (5.8_0 is installed; the port was not found in the port index) > > DEBUG: epoch: in tree: 0 installed: 0 > > DEBUG: gmp 6.2.0_1 exists in the ports tree > > DEBUG: gmp 5.0.1_1 is the latest installed > > DEBUG: gmp 5.0.1_1 is active > > DEBUG: Merging existing variants '' into variants > > DEBUG: new fully merged portvariants: > > DEBUG: Changing to port directory: /opt/local/var/macports/sources/ > > rsync.macports.org/release/ports/devel/gmp > > > > DEBUG: OS darwin/16.7.0 (Mac OS X 11.2) arch i386 > > That's certainly curious output, since Darwin 16.7.0 is actually macOS > 10.12, not 11.2. But there could have been bugs in the way that MacPorts > dealt with newer macOS version numbers which was addressed in newer > versions of MacPorts. > >