MacPorts: Unable to create new file for libtclstub8.4.a, Permission denied

[ryandesign (Ryan Carsten Schmidt)]

The privilege de-escalation code now used in MacPorts 2 seems to have broken the fixup code in the MacPorts port:

--->  Configuring MacPorts
DEBUG: Using compiler 'Mac OS X gcc 4.0'
DEBUG: Executing proc-pre-org.macports.configure-configure-0
Fixing your MacOSX10.5 installation by copying libtclstub8.4.a to /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.5.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Tcl.framework/Versions/8.4/libtclstub8.4.a
Error: Target org.macports.configure returned: xinstall: Unable to create new file for: /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.5.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Tcl.framework/Versions/8.4/libtclstub8.4.a, Permission denied
DEBUG: Backtrace: xinstall: Unable to create new file for: /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.5.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Tcl.framework/Versions/8.4/libtclstub8.4.a, Permission denied

The obvious first try to fix this was to set configure.asroot yes inside the if clause before it attempts to copy into the library from the SDK, but this fails; it seems configure.asroot must be set before the configure phase even begins, so by pre-configure time it's too late.

The workaround I used was to temporarily add configure.asroot yes to the main part of the Portfile and run sudo port configure once, then remove that line again. Or I could have just manually fixed things. Since this is just a one-time fixup operation, only affects PowerPC Macs running Leopard and Tiger, and is only needed for people building disk images of new MacPorts releases, it's obviously not a big deal. If nobody thinks of an easy fix, this ticket at least documents the issue and the workaround for future release managers.

[ryandesign (Ryan Carsten Schmidt)]

The other problem with setting "configure.asroot yes" is that this causes the build to then fail:

can not open CC_PRINT_OPTIONS_FILE /Volumes/Data/macports/tiger/var/macports/build/_Volumes_Data_macports_dports_sysutils_MacPorts/MacPorts/work/.CC_PRINT_OPTIONS
lipo: can't figure out the architecture type of: /var/tmp//ccdYxv0O.out
make[2]: *** [registry.o] Error 1

[cooljeanius (Eric Gallager)]

Cc Me!

[cooljeanius (Eric Gallager)]

Does this still happen with newer versions of MacPorts?