ghc-6.10.2 Configure error

[h8spawn@…]

When trying to upgrade ghc-6.10.1 to 6.10.2 on Mac Os X 10.4 (Tiger) Intel, the configure step stops with an error:

sudo port upgrade ghc
Error: Target org.macports.configure returned: configure failure: shell command " cd "/opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_www.macports.org_files_ports_lang_ghc/work/ghc-6.10.2" && ./configure --prefix=/opt/local --prefix=/opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_www.macports.org_files_ports_lang_ghc/work/destroot/opt/local --datadir=/opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_www.macports.org_files_ports_lang_ghc/work/destroot/opt/local/share/ghc-6.10.2 --with-gmp-includes=/opt/local/include --with-gmp-libraries=/opt/local/lib --with-ghc='/opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_www.macports.org_files_ports_lang_ghc/work/ghc-bootstrap/bin/ghc' " returned error 1
Command output: checking build system type... i386-apple-darwin8.11.1
checking host system type... i386-apple-darwin8.11.1
checking target system type... i386-apple-darwin8.11.1
Canonicalised to: i386-apple-darwin
checking version of ghc... 6.6
checking for ghc-pkg matching /opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_www.macports.org_files_ports_lang_ghc/work/ghc-bootstrap/bin/ghc... /opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_www.macports.org_files_ports_lang_ghc/work/ghc-bootstrap/bin/ghc-pkg
checking whether ghc has editline package... no
checking for nhc... no
checking for nhc98... no
checking for hbc... no
checking for ld... /usr/bin/ld
checking for path to top of build tree... /opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_www.macports.org_files_ports_lang_ghc/work/ghc-6.10.2
checking Mac OS X deployment target... none
checking whether #! works in shell scripts... yes
checking for perl... /opt/local/bin/perl5.8
./configure: line 3659:  6624 Trace/BPT trap          $PerlCmd -v >conftest.out 2>&1
configure: error: your version of perl probably won't work, try upgrading it.

Error: Unable to upgrade port: 1

But the perl version is already up to date:

port list installed | grep perl
...
perl5.8                        @5.8.9          lang/perl5.8
...

[mf2k (Frank Schima)]

Actually "port list installed" does not do what you expect. You want to run the following:

port installed | grep perl

[h8spawn@…]

Thanks. I always mess this up...

port installed | grep perl
  perl5.8 @5.8.9_3 (active)

[h8spawn@…]

It seems like the issue isn't a bug in ghc. Sorry for the noise.

Un- and reinstalling the perl5.8 (and maybe gmp, though I don't really remember) port(s) resolved the issue for me.
After a little bit of tinkering it seemed like the problem was in the version of gmp used to build perl5.8.
I remembered that I built gmp and perl5.8 with Xcode 2.4 and subsequently upgraded Xcode to version 2.5,
so ghc tried build with that.
I thought that was the culprit so I tried to rebuild perl5.8 (gmp?) and that fixed it.

Once again sorry for the noise and for filing an unnecessary bug.

[mf2k (Frank Schima)]

Glad you got it working.