Defining Roadmaps

What are the next steps required until the next MacPorts release(s)?

After a lengty discussion, we identified the following work mode to track base tickets and where they are being released:

• Base tickets are usually created without milestones.
• When closing a ticket when a fix is pushed to master, set the milestone field to the milestone for the next feature release to indicate that is now fixed on master.
• If the fix should be backported to a release branch, set the needs-backport keyword.
• When backporting to a release branch, set the ticket's milestone to the milestone for the next bugfix release.
• If there are milestones missing, file a ticket against the trac component and request them.

This documentation should be moved to the guide #56056.

Release Planning

MacPorts 2.4.3

We identified a need for a bugfix release from the 2.4.x branch, because trace mode is currently broken in 2.4.2 on High Sierra. The ticket for that is #55575. There was an email from Ryan a while ago that requested backporting a number of fixes as well. We created #56018 to track this.

#34619

prevent use of unknown subports

#50469

Git clone fails - SSL certificate problem: Couldn't understand the server certificate format

#52218

make test: Error: no mirror had select-0.1.tar.gz for gcc_select

#55492

move: case-only renames fail when no arguments are given

#55560

Failed to locate 'lbzip2' in path: '/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin' or at its MacPorts configuration time location, did you move it?

#55575

port -vst install fails with "/usr/bin/tar: No such file or directory"

#56018

Backport bugfixes to release-2.4 for next release

MacPorts 2.4.4

#26486

Error attempting to install portfile with non-integer revision

#55680

Trace mode fails when ccache is used

#55933

Use MacPorts Subversion when fetch.type svn on OS X El Capitan and earlier

#55939

reclaim does not support distfile tags

#55989

Use MacPorts git when fetch.type git on OS X Mountain Lion and earlier

#56267

Backport changes to release-2.4 for 2.4.4

MacPorts 2.5.0

There are a number of features that we want to get done before the next major version release. We mostly picked branches with some code that don't need a lot of work to merged into master and simple tickets for this milestone. We did not want to set any far-reached goals for 2.5.0.

#22471

Debugging options for startupitems (launchd / daemondo)

#23677

Deactivating a port should automatically unload daemons

#31798

Installation from binary package does not notify user of need to start launch item

#36770

Need for a fix regarding mechanism for startupitem handling

#40074

Add macports.conf setting controlling startupitem.autostart

#44295

support more than one launchd plist

#44496

startupitem_install not respected when installing from binary archive

#44497

Change port load to use MacPorts plists directly

#46807

base: allow dots (.) in variant names

#52445

portpatch.tcl: support xz-compressed patchfiles

#53843

warning: 'syscall' is deprecated: first deprecated in macOS 10.12 - syscall(2) is unsupported; please switch to a supported interface

#53857

port -N reclaim does not remove any ports

#54037

port reclaim missing in man page of port

#54743

Binary-only mode requested with no usable archive sites configured

#55282

Lack of Xcode 9 update not detected with High Sierra OS.

#56053

Respect cxx_stdlib and delete_la_files in selection of archive_site

#56326

rev-upgrade considers gcc as broken due to libstdc++

#56434

Inconsistent flag names --nosync and --no-mirror

MacPorts 2.6.0

We identified a number of features that we think should be the next step after 2.5.0 and added them to the 2.6.0 milestone.

#37667

port lint should complain about using only md5 or sha1 checksums

#37867

Weird library install_names for MacPorts dylibs

#56041

Update compiler selection for 10.6-10.8 with libc++

#56381

It would be nice if shell mode saved command history immediately

#56563

Failed to activate: Cannot restore xattr:com.apple.decmpfs

#57003

port info order of fields is unexpected

#57143

Unable to determine location of a macOS SDK

#57245

Confusing message when attempting to use +universal with the macOS 10.14 SDK

#57457

Travis CI: Sometimes declared dependencies aren't installed

#57717

archive_site_local doesn't work at all

#57718

Unexpected behavior when archive_site_local contains more than 1 URL

#58016

Unnecessary warning about Xcode and xcodebuild when installing port

#58309

NOP port upgrade outdated returns error status

#58914

'bump' action not mentioned in port(1) man page

#59061

2.6.0 rc1 and beta1 packages won't open on SnowLeopard

MacPorts 2.7.0

#15186

port upgrade does not work correctly on current pseudo-port

#15712

Add versions to platforms

#15939

port install : in need of a progressbar

#16373

base should maintain a persistent working copy for all supported VCS fetches

#29093

changing $worksrcdir break the build when using git.fetch or hg.fetch

#42207

uninstalling macports could be easier

#46927

record successfully applied patches in the statefile

#46956

base should keep track of explicitly requested variants on install and only preserve those on upgrade

#50518

bug: case sensitive port names in boolean expressions

#50708

Base should support fetching git submodules (git submodule update)

#50896

Implement a function to create stable tarballs

#50969

Provide a generic extract command in base

#55011

livecheck should have curl request a compressed response

#55502

Use size from checksums for curl progress bar when server does not supply length header

#56019

Support automatic migration between OS releases using 'port migrate'

#56020

Finalize and merge gsoc10-configfiles

#56021

Finalize and merge gsoc11-post-destroot

#56022

Colors in the port command

#56042

Bundle libc++ with MacPorts on 10.6

#56055

Support creating MacPorts pkg/dmg by using 'pkg' and 'dmg' targets in the base builds system

#56180

use subdir for trace mode socket

#56183

registry: Remove the receipt_flat storage

#56252

macosx_version should contain the full macOS version

#56549

selfupdate loses error message returned by mportsync

#56629

Make cxx_stdlib mismatches more verbose

#56743

--with-no-root-privileges should imply --without-startupitems

#56817

`port activate`: error selecting already active version/variant

#57133

Don't offer universal variant when multiple architectures aren't supported

#57719

archive_site_local URLs are attempted twice

#57720

preferred_hosts has no effect on archive_site_local

#59289

base does not necessarily tell you when circular dependency occurs

#59643

Please add port version, revision and variant info the debug output

#60126

'port reclaim' should clean out /opt/local/var/macports/build

#60454

Print a warning when users specify version/revision information at install time that will not be honored

#60653

Allow ports to customize the launchd plist files in the destroot phase

#60854

Wrong subversion dependency when fetch.type is svn with Xcode 11.4 and later

#61154

Error: port deactivate failed: this entry does not own the given file

#61540

Segmentation Fault during rev-upgrade

#61584

Use deployment target 10.16 on Big Sur

#61649

installer postflight incorrectly sets DISPLAY variable on Big Sur

#61866

base uses incorrect SDK for Big Sur 11.1 and Xcode 12.3

Base tickets without a milestone

#12048

RFE: Document all the code in the MacPorts base

#20683

port upgrade does nothing with a downgraded package

#23038

Option to automatically clean distfile too

#24520

warn when an unavailable version is requested for install

#24687

port command unnecessarily requires permissions to the cwd

#24778

please add mcpu (march is only for x86)

#25182

add a way to exclude build dependencies from pseudo-portname "leaves"

#25970

Variant names should be treated case-insensitively

#26028

Add feature to show changes between port versions

#26853

MacPorts should say why it is (re)installing a dependency

#26918

MacPorts-1.9.1 compiled to XFS NFS files system

#27097

program suggests running 'port xxx' from within the 'port' interactive shell

#27141

Feature request: make minimum UID/GID for adduser addgroup commands configurable

#27353

selfupdate failing, perhaps a user account issue?

#27788

ports should ignore default +universal when universal archs mismatch

#28001

MacPorts base could support out-of-source builds, or tell user that it doesn't

#28096

stale interpreter reference used after error in interactive mode

#28640

port lint should warn when *-append should be used

#28738

Hard links fail with Macports on AFS

#29009

port incorrectly detects some ports as uninstalled

#29172

remove dependency on Xcode

#30040

Allow case-sensitive build roots

#30067

archives owned by different users

#30328

Enable variants for specific ports in variants.conf

#30562

MacPorts should offer to sign archives

#30622

port should output a message when vacuuming registry

#30736

Local repository with space in path name won't work

#31056

Locking somewhat broken in MacPorts 2

#31472

pextlib crash/segfault in curl code

#32261

Allow building on a RAM disk or other secondary disk

#32266

pkg: tell us where it was created

#32700

port upgrade -u py25-wxpython fails to deactivate old version

#33037

background archiving

#33396

Create single mpkg of all installed ports

#33491

Save binary packages to user-specified location

#33629

port -e, environment mode

#33820

base: add ui_msg to output outdated ports during selfupdate

#33930

Ignore consequences of broken DNS servers

#33933

Remove "port -u uninstall" functionality

#34832

PORT/work/.home/.subversion and proxy access

#34931

Add "new" to port command

#35093

mpkg / mdmg requires cleaning and reinstalling every time

#35670

could not set effective gid to 0

#36137

Option to mark a port for installation when the port is fixed

#36612

path:-style dep allows non-macports file inside macports prefix

#36951

Feature Request: Notify me when my local Portfiles shadow upstream Portfiles that have been updated

#37583

base: Update m4/tcl.m4 to check for tcl8.6

#37853

RFE: "port provides" should return a different message when used on files provided by base

#38112

RFE: add a "depends_pkg" type of dependency

#38120

RFE: automatically remove .DS_Store files from build directories

#38206

RFE: pubkeys_conf variable in macports.conf

#38381

RFE: pseudo-portnames `depof:` and `rdepof:` should be more granular

#38555

RFE: Move "rec_glob" proc from nodejs portfile into base

#38579

RFE: make the aclocal.m4 file in base safe to regenerate with `aclocal`

#38582

RFE: update the configure.ac file in base to silence some warnings produced by autoscan

#38586

atlas @3.10.1_3: log file contents missing when -k option used

#38662

RFE: Replace "command execution failed" with a more informative error message

#38697

mdmg says it's up-to-date when it isn't

#38859

Use dseditgroup in "addgroup"?

#38862

Automatically clean builds with old statefile formats

#39272

`-p` flag for `port` command doesn't play nice with errors resulting from mismatched requested variants vs. originally-selected variants

#39405

Space character in packagemaker_path attribute in macports.conf breaks mpkg and mdmg

#39423

Uninstalling replaced port with dependents has to be forced

#39659

configure script does not expand "~" for applications_dir and frameworks_dir

#39782

Add keyword to list compatible graphical environments (X11, Quartz, Wayland)?

#39897

Add 'optional' or 'recommended' metadata tags to portfile spec.

#40035

base aborts if current directory does not exist, even when given a port name

#40042

base should ignore variant conflicts when cleaning

#41339

Add "dependencies" as alias of "deps"

#41796

binary package download ignores macosx_deployment_target set globally

#41828

port 2.2.1 mpkg build fails after package has been created

#42731

RFE: Add a conf option to automatically run test phase during normal install process

#43291

more integrated security notification: security page, port selfupdate notice, ...

#43648

mpkg missing daemondo

#43809

port selfupgrade to base v2.3.0 fails on G4

#43996

port select should record its symlinks in the registry

#44067

use "configure.includes {path1 path2}" instead of "configure.cppflags -I{path1} -I{path2}"

#44413

Use a compiler wrapper script

#44451

Update Installer System Requirements info

#44493

Support globs in port versions

#44509

selfupdate tried to tell me to run selfupdate again

#44549

Overriding autoreconf.cmd/autoconf.cmd/automake.cmd should delete default autoreconf.args/autoconf.args/automake.args

#44691

port search: return Trac ticket for submission

#44786

list of dependencies to be installed can be inaccurate

#44894

base: improve livecheck.type moddate

#44900

Installation of Xcode should be better than Homebrew's process

#45010

RFE: stop "port test" immediately if no test phase defined

#45274

Run portbuild::build_main once for each build.target

#45353

base - git and mercurial fetching target directory

#45674

Misleading logging

#45851

port should scan for DYLIB missing the TWOLEVEL flag

#45981

Clearer logging

#46139

postflight.in v2.3.1 Error determining network user's shell

#46229

Uninstalling all active ports - are you sure?

#47442

port: new action_environment and/or environment mode

#47706

base: postflight.in: Missing check causes duplicate PATH entries when sourcing CONF_FILE

#48051

Installing a port +universal needlessly reinstalls recursive dependencies +universal

#48345

Building for 10.4u SDK on 10.6 uses gcc-4.0 even though building directly on 10.4 uses the newer apple-gcc-4.2

#48423

Replace bzip2 and gzip with pbzip2 and pigz system wide?

#48680

port-lint: Add option to disable parent directories checks

#48968

Using port in Eterm: curl progress callback failed: can't read "env(COLUMNS)": no such variable

#48983

portconfigure.tcl : fix for building on Linux

#49101

Ensure that macports $HOME exists and is valid

#49169

port selfupdate fails with an imprecise error message when the Xcode license has not been accepted

#49496

Offer a choice of mirror server in the MacPorts installer package

#49501

Spaces and Backslashes in Group Names

#49645

`port -n upgrade --force foo` should deactivate after creating the new archive

#49855

base fails to build on Linux: sip_copy_proc.c:319: error: ‘struct stat’ has no member named ‘st_mtimespec’

#50168

selfupdate: rsync fails if http_proxy is configured

#50233

port upgrade --force shouldn't uninstall if no permission was given to install a missing dependency

#50770

In rsync_options, use --delete-delay instead of --delete-after

#51045

"---> Attempting to fetch" doesn't start in a new line

#51183

MacPorts did not install curl's dependency openssl

#51214

Add option to show binary package URLs

#51298

Base does not prevent conflicting port activation when portfile from registry cannot be executed

#51498

requested (meta) ports get uninstalled on uninstall leaves

#51499

Propose --follow-dependents

#51599

main.log is never deleted with "keeplogs yes"

#51684

xcodebuild exists but failed to execute

#51706

platform statement: support an else clause

#51799

add a concept of 'distributions' for ports that work on specific older architectures

#52000

Add xz to "base" to allow changing the default compression format to .tar.xz in the future

#52303

`port uninstall --follow-dependents` uninstalls more ports than `port rdependents` reports

#52530

conditional PortGroup include

#52575

Report Xcode version and other useful information in main.log

#52700

port rev-upgrade stumbles over -weak_framework library dependencies

#52713

splitting up ports in "runtime" and "-dev" ports, DebUntu style (PoC)

#52767

port lint should warn when modeline is missing

#52873

port sync should open only a single rsync connection

#52898

revision convenience

#52911

rev-upgrade -v should be more verbose about missing architecture

#52952

Ability to list just emails or just GitHub usernames of maintainers

#52973

add setting to allow main.log truncation

#52981

Print custom warnings from Portfile with `port info`

#53089

option-contains

#53387

Pextlib/xinstall : don't ignore directory chmod errors silently

#53404

`port upgrade outdated` changes colours in terminal emulation

#53411

macports-base codesigning ?

#53730

copy, delete, move, touch: support -W argument for changing working directory

#53909

port diagnose fails in xcode-select

#54056

MacPorts should warn when not using "macports" rsync module

#54366

2 variant convenience procedures

#54386

variants set with default_variant don't propagate the same way as variants set by the user do.

#54388

port -q should suppress warnings

#54393

Port fails to execute an upgrade with the additional arguments given at invocation but uses it for upgrading the ports on which the given port depends

#54579

Add alias "dependencies" for action "deps"

#54645

Uninstall one Python version removes packages from other Python versions

#54697

`port history` action

#55085

Trying to install a port which is already installed should mark it as requested.

#55089

Make "port requested" an alias for "port installed requested"

#55151

port install fails if $COLUMNS is unset

#55332

chown does not support changing group

#55445

install phase fails with "no destroot found"

#55468

macports destroot.umask not recursively applied

#55508

autorequested (mark some unrequested leaves as requested)

#55514

Add semantic versioning support to livecheck

#55546

Install dependencies without asking

#55637

allow port reactivation (WIP)

#55673

destroot.keepdirs should behave better if specified path is not in destroot

#55827

sandbox-exec: execvp() of 'sh' failed: No such file or directory

#55940

Don't import suffix into global namespace

#56008

port mirror does not indicate failure when checksum verification fails

#56016

make test uses the installed version of MacPorts, not the just-built one

#56040

Move some checks out of lint --nitpick

#56120

pkg-config fails to find python3

#56134

shortcut to combine selfupdate and upgrade outdated

#56201

make dist requires DISTVER to be specified

#56204

Remove prefix string from darwintrace.dylib and Pextlib.dylib

#56245

rev-upgrade: Handling missing architectures on libraries

#56345

Make it easier to determine which ports have lint problems

#56365

Create test to verify correct functioning of ptys in system call

#56435

selfupdate should use parallel build

#56437

rev-upgrade ignores -p

#56457

use_dmg: /usr/bin/cpio: illegal option -- 0

#56619

I ran "sudo port selfupdate" and now I cannot install any ports without an error

#56625

test statefile-unknown fails

#56704

archivefetch failed verification with key /opt/local/share/macports/macports-pubkey.pem

#56756

Build doesn't honor --bindir, --libexecdir, etc.

#56757

reclaim removed my ports without asking

#56793

Installing a port with many files appears appears hang

#56957

attempt to create ccachedir conditionally

#56963

New keywords for bash/zsh tab-completion

#57011

New keyword for man page/documentation installation

#57075

port diagnose: check directory permissions

#57076

port diagnose: warn about incompatible archs

#57099

[feature request] "replaces" keyword

#57160

MacPorts base readline support is not compatible with MacPorts readline port

#57171

Registry operations can take a very long time in 2.5.3 under Mojave

#57391

port log and port logfile don't accept subport

#57653

install/upgrade feedback suggestion

#57690

Warning when disabling default archive_sites

#57695

Set AR, NM and RANLIB env. variables

#57730

registry.db files table should have unique constraint over id and path columns

#57736

Allow the location of archive_sites.conf and pubkeys.conf to be configured in macports.conf

#57950

port selfupdate gives the impression of doing work in the wrong order

#57964

port diagnose: could not execute xcode-select, no such file or directory

#58018

MacPorts fails to run after manual install via tarball

#58060

Build error on Ubuntu: unknown type name ‘SHA2_CTX’ / conflicting types for ‘SHA256_CTX’

#58103

new command request: port broken

#58175

base fails to configure in a path that contains a space

#58229

base: defining the same variant both in a PG and a port discards description

#58497

Don't check os_major on Linux

#58529

Port command, in interactive mode, doesn't load the editline config file

#58575

Small error - Forcing uninstall uses wrong jargon

#58597

When MacPorts asks a yes/no question, add an abort option

#58656

Show URL in "port info"

#58663

Unsigned files will not run at all in future versions of macOS

#58751

MacPorts should bundle a newer rsync or allow overriding the default rsync

#58785

If port select fails, it can leave an incomplete or inconsistent set of symlinks

#58858

[base]: default_variants could check variant conflicts

#59055

port bump suggestions

#59283

xinstall: Prevent the creation of pathless directories that looks like octal permission numbers, like 755

#59373

gtk3 @3.24.12 does not build on PPC Mac OS X 10.5.8, Leopard, because "too many nested evaluations (infinite loop?)"

#59381

Do something better when no ports are specified

#59463

Binary-only mode requested with no usable archive sites configured

#59672

Set SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH

#59691

After a time, MacPorts cannot determine the Xcode version, on Snow Leopard

#59696

Use MacPorts git or svn if available when fetch.type is git or svn

#59836

port should explicitly say to use sudo when upgrading

#59837

macOS 10.14 SDK does not appear to be installed even though Command Line Tools are installed

#59839

Record default python and perl versions

#60062

selfupdate fails with Xcode 10.1 on macOS 10.13 because it uses the 10.14 SDK which doesn't have i386 bits

#60075

Error in Scanning binaries for linking errors

#60256

'port bump' does not update checksums for cargo crates

#60269

port archive should be smarter with regards to portarchivetype

#60431

base: (linux) fails to determine build arch correctly

#60432

base: (linux) arch flags are not recognized by linux compilers

#60433

base: (linux) cxx_stdlib is not derived by base

#60446

Port name unexpectedly handled case-sensitively when uninstalling

#60473

[wishlist] -u: allow not to uninstall all inactive versions

#60534

Print status information for a daemon

#60648

MacPorts marks ports requested that weren't

#60676

Install from source --with-no-root-privileges fails on Catalina - 'couldn't create error file for command: permission denied'

#60722

test.env doesn't work

#60749

Activation fails if a port tries to install ._ files

#60754

Reclaim removes build dependencies

#60756

Tell the user when fetching a binary failed and a build from source will occur

#60757

Print already completed phases

#60786

Build progress bar does not account for muniversal variant

#60818

darwintrace cannot inject into binaries of a different architecture

#60844

Make the reinplace warning an error

#60881

Portindex: "Failed to locate 'gnumake' in path" when faking the platform on Linux

#61015

Selectors depof: rdepof: subportof: ignore -p

#61050

Add `port vercmp` command

#61191

port deactivate fails, mentions nonexistent logfile

#61233

port command hangs under tracemode

#61236

$xcodeversion does not calculate the proper version when Xcode.app is not present or not found.

#61253

configuring base requires working tclsh

#61288

Manpage symlink to symlink doesn't get recreated to compressed version

#61315

Distfile fetch for python39 hangs on 10.5

#61320

MacPorts-2.6.3-10.15-Catalina.pkg installer error

#61390

compiler.openmp_version doesn't set configure.ldflags -L${prefix}/lib/libomp -lomp with port groups cmake+python

#61503

improve warning message when command line tools are out of date

#61574

Tests that try to access system libraries fail on Big Sur

#61683

remoted hangs on Big Sur when installing p5* ports, losing network and sometimes panicking kernel

#61750

base prefers arch of terminal in use rather than machine arch when installing ports

#61813

macports base: faulty symbolic links should be flagged

#61980

port lint --nitpick gives false warning when version is a single integer

#62144

base: On Mountain Lion configuration file is processed but it ignores archives server URL

#62321

sudo port -v selfupdate or sudo port -v sync will stop for a long time

#62345

Not prompted to agree to xcode license when circular dependencies exist due to that very problem

#62382

port mpkg iperf3 fails to create work/destroot/ directories

#62457

port lint: warn if there is no test phase

#62554

Let ports specify expected memory use per job

#62590

port lint: warn if missing 'revision' field

#62591

port lint incorrectly warns about missing checksums in go.vendors and cargo.crates

#62677

Add C++20 support for configure.cxx_standard

#62688

Increase minimum C11 compatible compiler

#62710

`return -code error` doesn't work inside a 'try' command's catch clause

#62711

Base: port rdeps --full, infinite loop on circular dependency