netpbm @10.69 cannot be built while another version of netpbm is active

[ballapete (Peter "Pete" Dyballa)]

--->  Configuring netpbm
DEBUG: Using compiler 'Xcode GCC 4.2'
DEBUG: Executing proc-pre-org.macports.configure-configure-0
Error: netpbm cannot be built while another version of netpbm is active.
Error: Please deactivate the existing copy of netpbm and try again.
Error: org.macports.configure for port netpbm returned: netpbm is active
DEBUG: Error code: NONE
DEBUG: Backtrace: netpbm is active

¿So what? Isn't normal that a package is active when I am going to update it? Just before it worked to update the py27-setuptools with only a small problem (some source archive not available)… Isn't it the job of a package manager like port to handle deactivation and such steps? I have installed:

  netpbm @10.68.02_0 (active)

Manual deactivation does not work:

root 317 /\ port deactivate netpbm
--->  Deactivating netpbm @10.68.02_0
--->  Unable to deactivate netpbm @10.68.02_0, the following ports depend on it:
--->  	groff @1.22.2_1
--->  	gts @0.7.6_2
Error: org.macports.deactivate for port netpbm returned: Please uninstall the ports that depend on netpbm first.
Please see the log file for port netpbm for details:
    /opt/local/var/macports/logs/_opt_local_var_macports_registry_portfiles_netpbm-10.68.02_0_be195142e687e9612f1a6e1d1da88032f5f348d7bdc76161d0008c3c0b985db1-4292/netpbm/main.log
Warning: Failed to execute portfile from registry for netpbm @10.68.02_0
--->  Deactivating netpbm @10.68.02_0
--->  Unable to deactivate netpbm @10.68.02_0, the following ports depend on it:
--->  	groff @1.22.2_1
--->  	gts @0.7.6_2
Error: port deactivate failed: Please uninstall the ports that depend on netpbm first.

[ballapete (Peter "Pete" Dyballa)]

main.log from manual deactivation

[frozencemetery (Robbie Harwood)]

Also occurs on 10.9.5, so I think this probably occurs in all cases.

[frozencemetery (Robbie Harwood)]

Cc Me!

[ryandesign (Ryan Carsten Schmidt)]

The error message is correct. netpbm 10.69 will fail to build if netpbm 10.68 is active. I reported this problem to the developer of netpbm, who said it is unfixable. This is not true, but it will take time to either convince the developer that it can be fixed, or fix it myself and send the fix to him. Rather than delay the release of new versions of netpbm in MacPorts until this is fixed, I added the conflicts_build portgroup to the port to detect the problem and advise you how to work around it, which is that you must deactivate your existing copy of netpbm before you can build the new one. If you have other ports installed that depend on netpbm, you must force the deactivation. In r130863 I have improved the error message that the conflicts_build portgroup displays to make that clearer, and to give an example of how to do that, so please sudo port selfupdate and then try again.

Most users will not encounter this problem because the problem only occurs when building the port, and most users will receive pre-built binaries from our packages server. We don't have pre-built binaries for Mac OS X versions earlier than 10.6 which is why you did encounter the problem.