gettext failing to build

[coolfactor@…]

gettext has been failing to build on my MacBookPro3,1 running OS X 10.8.4. Log file is attached.

--->  Computing dependencies for gettext
--->  Fetching archive for gettext
--->  Attempting to fetch gettext-0.18.3.1_0+universal.darwin_12.i386-x86_64.tbz2 from http://packages.macports.org/gettext
--->  Attempting to fetch gettext-0.18.3.1_0+universal.darwin_12.i386-x86_64.tbz2 from http://mse.uk.packages.macports.org/sites/packages.macports.org/gettext
--->  Attempting to fetch gettext-0.18.3.1_0+universal.darwin_12.i386-x86_64.tbz2 from http://lil.fr.packages.macports.org/gettext
--->  Fetching distfiles for gettext
--->  Verifying checksums for gettext
--->  Extracting gettext
--->  Applying patches to gettext
--->  Configuring gettext
--->  Building gettext
Error: org.macports.build for port gettext returned: command execution failed

[coolfactor@…]

gettext install log

[ryandesign (Ryan Carsten Schmidt)]

Ok, you're trying to install gettext with the universal variant. MacPorts first ensures that dependencies are installed universal. Despite that check, dependency libiconv appears to not actually be universal:

:info:build Undefined symbols for architecture i386:
:info:build   "_libiconv", referenced from:
:info:build       _xmlIconvWrapper in libxml_rpl.a(libxml_rpl_la-encoding.o)
:info:build   "_libiconv_close", referenced from:
:info:build       _xmlFindCharEncodingHandler in libxml_rpl.a(libxml_rpl_la-encoding.o)
:info:build       _xmlCharEncCloseFunc in libxml_rpl.a(libxml_rpl_la-encoding.o)
:info:build   "_libiconv_open", referenced from:
:info:build       _xmlFindCharEncodingHandler in libxml_rpl.a(libxml_rpl_la-encoding.o)
:info:build ld: symbol(s) not found for architecture i386

You told me by email that you then forcibly uninstalled something (what? libiconv?), cleaned gettext and reinstalled it, and it worked, except activation failed:

:error:activate org.macports.activate for port gettext returned: Image error: /opt/local/share/gettext/archive.dir.tar.bz2 already exists and does not belong to a registered port.  Unable to activate port gettext. Use 'port -f activate gettext' to force the activation.

I suspect you installed some third-party software, which was itself built using MacPorts, and it overwrote some files in your MacPorts installation. See ProblemHotlist#xmlwf for some of the usual culprits and what to do about it.

[coolfactor@…]

Yes, you are correct. I did install some third-party software and it installed into /opt/, and that's when the problems begin. I don't recall which software this was, but that gives me a starting point to resolving this. Thanks. Closing ticket.

[ryandesign (Ryan Carsten Schmidt)]

If it's not one of the third-party programs listed in the wiki page I mentioned, please let us know its name so we can add it to the Hall of Shame, or edit the wiki page and add it yourself. Please also ask the developers to package their software in a different prefix so this does not happen to other users.

If you can figure out what all it installed, you can try to rebuild all the affected ports, but you may have to do them in a particular order (based on dependencies). It may be easier to uninstall all ports, remove /opt/local, reinstall MacPorts, then reinstall those ports you want.