It's a common occurrence that you'll see something like this while fetching a port: $ sudo port install python24 ---> Fetching python24 ---> Attempting to fetch Python-2.4.4.tar.bz2 from http:// www.python.org//ftp/python/2.4.4/ ^C $ Note the double slash after the hostname, which should just be a single slash. This is not a major problem, because the server still responds and delivers the desired file. But it's not 100% correct, and I'm a stickler for perfection, so here we go. The problem comes about because of these definitions in the portfile: homepage http://www.python.org/ master_sites ${homepage}/ftp/python/${version}/ The homepage ends with a slash, as it definitely should. But then the port author has defined master_sites with a slash after the homepage variable, which should not have been done. The correct definiton for master_sites would be: master_sites ${homepage}ftp/python/${version}/ I fix this in open ports when I see it and send patches to the maintainers of closed ports. In response to one such patch, Markus suggested that MacPorts base should automatically fix this. I suppose there is precedent, insofar as MacPorts will fix master_sites to end with a slash, if it does not already. I'm not sure if I'd be in favor of automated stripping of doubled slashes within URLs. It introduces a bit of magic into the master_sites variable, and I think magic should be avoided. And theoretically, a server could behave differently depending on the number of slashes. In practice, though, Apache collapses doubled slashes into a single one, and I don't know of any sites that would rely on double slashes in their download URLs. What do you all think?