Warning: configured user/group macports does not exist, will build as root

[wealthychef1]

Hello, thanks for stopping by. I'm getting this error while installing any package. Example:

root@rcook-iMac (part 1 (main)): port install xemacs
Warning: configured user/group macports does not exist, will build as root
Warning: configured user/group macports does not exist, will build as root
--->  Computing dependencies for expat
--->  Fetching archive for expat
--->  Attempting to fetch expat-2.5.0_0+universal.darwin_22.arm64-x86_64.tbz2 from https://packages.macports.org/expat
--->  Attempting to fetch expat-2.5.0_0+universal.darwin_22.arm64-x86_64.tbz2 from http://jog.id.packages.macports.org/macports/packages/expat
--->  Attempting to fetch expat-2.5.0_0+universal.darwin_22.arm64-x86_64.tbz2 from https://kmq.jp.packages.macports.org/expat

But this is not unique to any particular package. In ticket #41592, this was solved using this magic:

dscl . change /Users/macports PrimaryGroupID 502 501

This does not solve this issue for me. Any advice? Do I need to reinstall macports? Thanks

[wealthychef1]

I don't know what caused this but uninstalling and reinstalling MacPorts and repeating the

xcode-select --install

and licensing steps, along with blowing away an existing HomeBrew installation seems to have fixed things so this message does not appear any more. Not sure which of these was the issue but good to have a clean start.

[ryandesign (Ryan Carsten Schmidt)]

The MacPorts installer creates the macports user and group for you if they don't already exist.

[wealthychef1]

Replying to ryandesign:

The MacPorts installer creates the macports user and group for you if they don't already exist.

Except apparently when it doesn't! :-) I did not delete these users. But when I reinstalled MacPorts for whatever reason it worked properly, so who knows what the issue was. Thanks