On Oct 23, 2025, at 15:57, joerg van den hoff wrote: > > > > On 23.10.25 22:34, Ryan Carsten Schmidt wrote: > > On Oct 23, 2025, at 15:27, joerg van den hoff wrote: > >> > >> I seem to have an issue with groff 1.23.0 partly not correctly justifying > >> my own man macro formatted documents. but at some point in the recent past > >> I seemingly "cleaned up" and lost access to previously installed versions > >> in macports so I no longer simply can activate an older version. question: > >> > >> most frictionless way to get 1.22.4 installed in my macports tree again (I > >> can either remove 1.23.0 or deactivate it, no matter) and to lock that > >> installation for the time being (so that it is not accidentally updated in > >> the next port upgrade outdated run)? > > > > https://trac.macports.org/wiki/howto/InstallingOlderPort > > > > ah thanks for the link! > I've tried to follow that prescription: it seems in may case (going back to > last checkin before groff.1.23.0) I thus need to do > > git clone --single-branch https://github.com/macports/macports-ports.git > $ cd macports-ports > git checkout b4da402b979728e1b4cafab278f0c38a2a8ee3d3 > > (which I did from some not-special subfolder (freely reachable for macports > user) in my home dir. this leads to > > "You are in 'detached HEAD' state." > > I am definitely not a git user but I know that this usually is bad. question: > I guess for just working with that checkout it is innocuous? > > proceeding I did > > cd sysutils/groff > sudo port install > > which throws this error: > > Error: Failed to open statefile for groff: Could not open file: > /Users/{myusername}/software/macports-ports/sysutils/groff/Portfile > Error: Follow https://guide.macports.org/#project.tickets if you believe > there is a bug. > Error: Processing of port groff failed > > > what am I missing/doing wrong?
The macports user can't access your home directory maybe. Try putting that git clone outside of your home directory, or change the permissions of your home directory to allow other users to see inside it.
