expat activation failure

[solazari@…]

$ sudo port install gd2
Password:
--->  Computing dependencies for gd2
--->  Activating expat @2.0.1_0
Error: The following dependencies failed to build: autoconf help2man gettext expat libiconv gperf ncurses ncursesw p5-locale-gettext perl5 perl5.8 m4 automake fontconfig freetype zlib jpeg libpng libtool xpm pkgconfig xorg-libXext xorg-libX11 xorg-bigreqsproto xorg-inputproto xorg-kbproto xorg-libXau xorg-xproto xorg-libXdmcp xorg-util-macros xorg-xcmiscproto xorg-xextproto xorg-xf86bigfontproto xorg-xtrans xorg-libXt xorg-libsm xorg-libice
Error: Status 1 encountered during processing.
Before reporting a bug, first run the command again with the -d flag to get complete output.

i am new with macports, what should i do for this error?

[ryandesign@…]

I'd uninstall expat and install it again, with the debug switch, so that if any error occurs, you see what error is actually occurring.

sudo port clean expat
sudo port uninstall expat
sudo port install expat

If this fails, attach the output to this ticket.

[ryandesign@…]

Correction: the last command should have been:

sudo port -d install expat

[jmr@…]

Possibly the same as #23110, which also lacks output from sudo port -d activate expat.

[solazari@…]

Replying to ryandesign@…:

Correction: the last command should have been:

sudo port -d install expat

it can't install expat with the last command. i attached the file.

[ryandesign@…]

Ok, from your output:

Error: Target org.macports.activate returned: Image error: /opt/local/bin/xmlwf already exists and does not belong to a registered port.  Unable to activate port expat.

Why does /opt/local/bin/xmlwf already exist and not belong to a registered port? expat is the only thing that should be installing this file. So either you installed expat manually in the MacPorts prefix, or you installed expat using MacPorts but MacPorts no longer knows this. You could force the activation:

sudo port -f activate expat

but since I don't know where your existing xmlwf file came from, I don't know if there might be other unregistered files as well so you might encounter the same problem with other ports.

[solazari@…]

Well i tried "sudo port -f activate expat" and after that i was able to install expat. I don't really know if i already had expat installed. After that i tried" sudo port install gd2" and i get exactly the same error as before.

[ryandesign@…]

Replying to solazari@…:

Well i tried "sudo port -f activate expat" and after that i was able to install expat. I don't really know if i already had expat installed.

You had at least the file /opt/local/bin/xmlwf which is a part of expat.

After that i tried" sudo port install gd2" and i get exactly the same error as before.

This time the error should not be with activating the expat port because it is now activated. Clean whichever port now complains and try again with the debug switch again and see what error message is actually occurring now.

[solazari@…]

i finally did it. thank you very much for your help and for your patience.

[ryandesign@…]

Ok, I'm glad you got it working.

[ryandesign@…]

Duplicate of #23110.