BUG: configure of port (base) fails due to Tcl missing threads on PPC Mac OS X 10.4.10

[yaseppochi (Stephen J. Turnbull)]

This is in a base tree I've been using for a while, so there may be cruft. However, I always do "make clean" before ./configure. Here's the relevant tail of ./configure:

checking for Tcl configuration... found /usr/lib/tclConfig.sh
checking for existence of /usr/lib/tclConfig.sh... loading
checking for Tcl public headers... /usr/include
checking for tclsh... /opt/macports/bin/tclsh
checking for Tcl package directory... /opt/macports/lib/tcl8.4
checking whether tclsh was compiled with threads... no
configure: error: tcl wasn't compiled with threads enabled

This occurs with "./configure" or "./configure --with-included-tclthreads".

Note that my MacPorts installation is in /opt/macports, not /opt/local. By using --with-tcl and --with-tclinclude I can get those to find the MacPorts build of Tcl instead of Apple's, but no matter what combination of options I use the check for threads fails.

[kballard (Lily Ballard)]

It seems a bit suspect that PPC 10.4.10 would be missing threads in tclsh. I've verified that they're definitely there on intel.

Can you do the following for me? Run echo 'puts $tcl_platform(threaded)' | /usr/bin/tclsh and tell me what it outputs.

[yaseppochi (Stephen J. Turnbull)]

Here's the test you requested:

$ echo 'puts $tcl_platform(threaded)' | /usr/bin/tclsh
1

and now for something completely different:

$ echo 'puts $tcl_platform(threaded)' | /opt/macports/bin/tclsh
can't read "tcl_platform(threaded)": no such element in array

and here's what .configure --with-tcl=/usr/lib says about tclsh:

checking for tclsh... /opt/macports/bin/tclsh

and PATH:

$ echo $PATH
/usr/local/bin:/opt/macports/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin

and I say, er, my mother says I can't say it.

At least

PATH=/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin ./configure

results in a successful configure, build, and install.

[afb@…]

You need to ./configure --prefix /opt/macports, or else it will only strip the default prefix (/opt/local) from the PATH and leave your /opt/macports/bin intact - failing the build...

[afb@…]

BTW; --with-included-tclthread doesn't have anything to do with whether tcl is threaded, it's for the Thread package

[kballard (Lily Ballard)]

I believe afp has documented the solution here. I didn't catch that you were using a custom prefix.

I'll mark this as worksforme, just reopen if the --prefix flag doesn't do what you want.

[tobypeterson]

Milestone MacPorts base bugs deleted

[rogerdpack@…]

for followers, like myself, I think what this means is that you can't install MacPorts from source if you already have macports itself installed in, example /opt/local. Rename that directory first, then it works. Kind of a red herring error message if that's the case "configure: error: tcl wasn't compiled with threads enabled"