graphviz-devel @2.50.0, or port, creates one sym-link too many on macOS High Sierra, version 10.12.6

[ballapete (Peter "Pete" Dyballa)]

At the end of upgrading the outdated ports:

--->  Updating database of binaries
DEBUG: Updating binary flag for file 1 of 1: /opt/local/share/man/man1/dot2gxl.1
--->  Scanning binaries for linking errors

But:

pete 124 /\  l /opt/local/share/man/man1/dot2gxl.1
lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel  8 18 Dez 11:38 /opt/local/share/man/man1/dot2gxl.1 -> gv2gxl.1
pete 125 /\ l -L /opt/local/share/man/man1/dot2gxl.1
lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel  8 18 Dez 11:38 /opt/local/share/man/man1/dot2gxl.1 -> gv2gxl.1
ls: dot2gxl.1: No such file or directory
Exit 1

And but again:

lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel   8 18 Dez 11:38 /opt/local/share/man/man1/dot2gxl.1 -> gv2gxl.1
lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel  11 11 Jan  2019 /opt/local/share/man/man1/dot2gxl.1.gz -> gxl2gv.1.gz
pete 128 /\ l -L /opt/local/share/man/man1/dot2gxl.1*
lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel     8 18 Dez 11:38 /opt/local/share/man/man1/dot2gxl.1 -> gv2gxl.1
-r--r--r--  1 root  wheel  1082 18 Dez 11:38 /opt/local/share/man/man1/dot2gxl.1.gz
ls: dot2gxl.1: No such file or directory
Exit 1

Is Makefile incorrectly set up?

root 722 /\ find root 723 /\ find /opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_macports_release_tarballs_ports_graphics_graphviz-devel/graphviz-devel/work -type f -exec grep -n dot2gxl.1 {} /dev/null \;
…/graphviz-devel/work/graphviz-2.50.0/cmd/tools/Makefile:1551:	(cd $(DESTDIR)$(man1dir); rm -f dot2gxl.1; $(LN_S) gv2gxl.1 dot2gxl.1;)
…/graphviz-devel/work/graphviz-2.50.0/cmd/tools/Makefile.am:51:	(cd $(DESTDIR)$(man1dir); rm -f dot2gxl.1; $(LN_S) gv2gxl.1 dot2gxl.1;)
…/graphviz-devel/work/graphviz-2.50.0/cmd/tools/Makefile.in:1551:	(cd $(DESTDIR)$(man1dir); rm -f dot2gxl.1; $(LN_S) gv2gxl.1 dot2gxl.1;)

The mentioned Makefiles do not reference dot2gxl.1.gz. Compressing all manual files seems to be a speciality of port…

[ballapete (Peter "Pete" Dyballa)]

On PC Tiger, Mac OS X 10.4.11, I see:

DEBUG: deactivating file: /opt/local/share/man/man1/dotty.1.gz
DEBUG: deactivating link: /opt/local/share/man/man1/dot2gxl.1
DEBUG: deactivating file: /opt/local/share/man/man1/dot.1.gz

and then

x ./opt/local/share/man/man1/dot.1.gz
x ./opt/local/share/man/man1/dot2gxl.1
x ./opt/local/share/man/man1/dotty.1.gz

followed by

DEBUG: activating file: /opt/local/share/man/man1/dot.1.gz
DEBUG: activating file: /opt/local/share/man/man1/dot2gxl.1
DEBUG: activating file: /opt/local/share/man/man1/dotty.1.gz

which results on disk in:

pete 242 /\ l /opt/local/share/man/man1/dot2gxl.1
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root admin 8 18. Dez 14:54 /opt/local/share/man/man1/dot2gxl.1 -> gv2gxl.1
pete 243 /\ l -L /opt/local/share/man/man1/dot2gxl.1
gls: Zugriff auf '/opt/local/share/man/man1/dot2gxl.1' nicht möglich: No such file or directory
Exit 2
pete 244 /\ l -L /opt/local/share/man/man1/dot2gxl.1*
gls: Zugriff auf '/opt/local/share/man/man1/dot2gxl.1' nicht möglich: No such file or directory
Exit 2
pete 245 /\ l /opt/local/share/man/man1/dot2gxl.1*
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root admin 8 18. Dez 14:54 /opt/local/share/man/man1/dot2gxl.1 -> gv2gxl.1

On High Sierra a working sym-link and a completely defunct sym-link are created while the binary archive for Tiger contains only the defunct sym-link.

[ryandesign (Ryan Carsten Schmidt)]

The Makefile is correct but it sets up a manpage symlink that points to another manpage symlink which is a scenario MacPorts base does not accommodate correctly.

The difference you observe between Tiger and High Sierra is likely down to the difference in the order in which readdir returns entries on HFS+ and APFS volumes.

[ryandesign (Ryan Carsten Schmidt)]

Duplicate of #61288.