On Mar 5, 2008, at 12:27 PM, Wilden Mark wrote:
A couple of days ago, I posted about the inability to build mod_python. There appears to be a problem building apr-1.2.12, which mod_python and others (like Subversion) depend on. A ticket was added for this (#14470).
Sorry, I didn't notice this ticket (as it wasn't assigned or CC'd to me), and I'm the maintainer of the apr port. It looks like your issue is a duplicate of #14203 (it's a conflict with ossp-uuid) and you should be able to get things working by temporarily deactivating ossp-uuid, rebuilding apr, and then activating ossp-uuid after you get it installed. [There's more detailed information in the ticket].
My questions are these:
1) Would this be considered a non-priority problem?
no.
Is it common for MacPorts to be unable to build vitally important tools like mod_python and subversion?
'vitally important' is in the eye of the user ;-) Ports with a maintainer should all build (at least most of the time), but there are many ports without a current maintainer that may or may not have been tested recently.
2) If that's in fact the case, what are the alternatives, if someone (like me) has been using MacPorts for other things? It appears (to this newbie) that you can't tell MacPorts, "hey, you don't need to build this - I built it myself," so it doesn't consider that it has a missing dependency.
By design, you can't do this. The rational for why is on website. Modifying portfiles isn't hard, however, so it's often easier to fix the macports port (and submit a patch so others can benefit) than building and managing things by hand by yourself.
3) Is MacPorts really just a convenience, and not something that one should depend on?
That's something you have to determine for yourself. Macports is a volunteer project. I'm sure if you wanted to pay someone to make sure everything that's important to you kept working, you could ;-)
Mr. Mod_Python (Graham Dumpleton) recommends not using it, for example.
That's interesting, and I would be curious as to why that would be the case. -- Daniel J. Luke +========================================================+ | *---------------- dluke@geeklair.net ----------------* | | *-------------- http://www.geeklair.net -------------* | +========================================================+ | Opinions expressed are mine and do not necessarily | | reflect the opinions of my employer. | +========================================================+