When installing gettext +universal, port warns me that it might not work because the port already overrides CFLAGS or LDFLAGS: $ sudo port install gettext +universal Warning: This port already overrides CFLAGS or LDFLAGS. The universal variant may break it. ---> Extracting gettext ---> Applying patches to gettext ---> Configuring gettext ---> Building gettext with target all ---> Staging gettext into destroot ---> Installing gettext 0.16.1_0+universal ---> Activating gettext 0.16.1_0+universal $ However, this is not a problem here because the gettext port deals with the situation: if {[llength [info commands configure.universal_ldflags-append]] > 0} { configure.universal_ldflags-append -L$prefix/lib configure.universal_cflags-append -I$prefix/include -no-cpp-precomp } else { variant universal { return -code error "You need to be running MacPorts 1.4.0 or higher to \ use this variant (universal)." } } port should not print that warning if configure.universal_cflags- append or .universal_ldflags-append are used.