libgcc8 not installable and upgrade blocker for macOS 10.15 Catalina

[razvand (Razvan Deaconescu)]

I'm upgrading ports on macOS 10.15 Catalina from macOS 10.14 Mojave. Although I've uninstalled libgcc8 and gcc8 I get this error when running sudo port upgrade outdated:

razvan@jotunn:~$ sudo port upgrade outdated
--->  Computing dependencies for libgcc8
--->  Fetching archive for libgcc8
--->  Attempting to fetch libgcc8-8.3.0_5.darwin_19.x86_64.tbz2 from https://packages.macports.org/libgcc8
--->  Attempting to fetch libgcc8-8.3.0_5.darwin_19.x86_64.tbz2 from http://nue.de.packages.macports.org/libgcc8
--->  Attempting to fetch libgcc8-8.3.0_5.darwin_19.x86_64.tbz2 from http://lil.fr.packages.macports.org/libgcc8
--->  Fetching distfiles for libgcc8
Error: gcc8 8.3.0 is (currently) not supported on Darwin 19
Error: See https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=90835 for more details
Error: Until the issue is addressed in Xcode, please instead install gcc9 / libgcc9
Error: Failed to fetch libgcc8: incompatible OS X version
Error: See /opt/local/var/macports/logs/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_macports_release_tarballs_ports_lang_gcc8/libgcc8/main.log for details.
Error: Problem while installing libgcc8
Error: Follow https://guide.macports.org/#project.tickets to report a bug.

razvan@jotunn:~$ sudo port dependents libgcc8
Error: Registry error: libgcc8 not registered as installed.

I've previously installed libgcc9 and gcc9 but that doesnt't help.

razvan@jotunn:~$ sudo port install libgcc9 gcc9
--->  Computing dependencies for libgcc9
--->  Cleaning libgcc9
--->  Computing dependencies for gcc9
--->  Cleaning gcc9
--->  Scanning binaries for linking errors
--->  No broken files found.
--->  No broken ports found.
razvan@jotunn:~$

What should I do to be upgrade outdated packages?

[razvand (Razvan Deaconescu)]

libgcc8 error log file

[kencu (Ken)]

Hello, kind Sir,

So far, gcc9 and libgcc9 are the only ones that work on Catalina.

Do you know which port you're trying to install is calling for gcc8? Perhaps that can be fixed. You can find that by running port rdeps XYZ where XYZ of course is the port you're trying to install. It's possible there is a gcc8 reference in there somewhere we need to fix.

Now, if you already had gcc8 / libgcc8 installed in some previous version of MacPorts, then you upgraded to Catalina, and it won't update, that's a different problem. In that case you need to follow the ​https://trac.macports.org/wiki/Migration instructions.

[cjones051073 (Chris Jones)]

Another thing you can try is to find any ports using a 'gcc8' variant, and then switch this out for a gcc9 one (which invariably there will be). This is I think quite likely as variants change over time, but less you manually update older ones, such as using older gcc versions, persist (port does not automatically handle this well).

If you followed the migration instructions correctly, just check the list of ports you made prior to uninstalling them, identify any using a gcc8 (or older) variant, and change these to gcc9. In the most part, just remove the variant and the default is likely to be gcc9.

If you failed to follow the migration instructions, try running

port installed | grep gcc

and use the output to identify the ports you need to change the variant with.

[kencu (Ken)]

Do you feel we might have closed this one a little prematurely? After all, our wonderful port program did ask this nice user to file a bug; he went to the trouble to do so. We're ready to help him fix his issue. We don't yet know just what it was. We have some guesses.

I would like to take a moment and ponder the message we just sent this person. Is he feeling nicely supported? Or is he sitting at his computer saying "Those Bleep-heads -- I'm never going back there again... where do I find homebrew?".

Sometimes, I think that the frequent users at MacPorts are our worst enemies in mindshare.

[cjones051073 (Chris Jones)]

It certainly wasn't my intention to send the message we aren't still here to help. Closing the ticket is, for me, just an indication of whether or not there is a bug on the macports side, and here there isn't one. It isn't an indication that the ticket is closed to further discussion. Tickets are always open to further comments, even once they have been resolved.

So yes - razvand - Please do post back to this ticket if you need further help in sorting this out on your system.

[cjones051073 (Chris Jones)]

b.t.w. Its useful information to know that others view resolving tickets in a different way to how I was. I will bear this in mind with future tickets..

[razvand (Razvan Deaconescu)]

Thanks for your replies. I solved the issues. I listed the outdated ports, uninstalled them, then reinstalled them and it worked. There was an issue with the schroedinger port, I'll look into that and fill another ticket if there is something to report.

Chris, there was no problem from my side on closing the ticket. Ken, there was no problem for me, thanks for considering that. You can close the ticket.

[kencu (Ken)]

Good to know! BTW, I'm also having trouble with schroedinger...