Aaron Adams’s Blowhard Blog

Brand new, clean install of MacPorts 1.5 on a Tiger 10.4.10 server. The command line I used:

sudo port -v install ntop

Lots of bits and pieces configure and compile for about 30 minutes, and it all ends with this:

gcc -dynamiclib -undefined dynamic_lookup -o .libs/libntop-3.3.dylib .libs/address.o .libs/argv.o .libs/dataFormat.o .libs/fcUtils.o .libs/getopt.o .libs/getopt1.o .libs/globals-core.o .libs/hash.o .libs/iface.o .libs/initialize.o .libs/l7.o .libs/leaks.o .libs/ntop.o .libs/pbuf.o .libs/database.o .libs/plugin.o .libs/prefs.o .libs/protocols.o .libs/sessions.o .libs/term.o .libs/util.o .libs/utildl.o .libs/traffic.o .libs/vendor.o .libs/version.o .libs/ntop_darwin.o /opt/local/lib/libart_lgpl_2.dylib /opt/local/lib/libz.dylib /opt/local/lib/libpng12.dylib /opt/local/lib/libfreetype.dylib -L/opt/local/lib -L/usr/local/lib -lpthread -lc -lssl /opt/local/lib/librrd_th.dylib /opt/local/lib/libgdbm.dylib -L/usr/lib -lnetsnmp -lcrypto -lz -lm -lwrap -lpcap -install_name /opt/local/lib/libntop-3.3.dylib

gnumake[2]: *** [libntop.la] Error 1
gnumake[1]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
gnumake: *** [all] Error 2

So I Google the error, read around a bit, and try this at the command line (per the suggestion of many sites):

export MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=10.4

It makes no difference. The compile still fails with the error:

MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET environment variable set to: 10.1

As a non-developer, I have no real idea what this error means or how to correct it. As I’ve stated before, it was my understanding that MacPorts was intended to make software compilation like this simple for those of us who are non-developers.

This kind of problem eventually happens every damn time I use MacPorts (and previously, Fink). Clean installs. Simple compilation of a common app. Utter failure and no real way to fix it.

The other surprising part of all this is that I am completely unable to find any kind of installer package for ntop 3.3 Is there really no alternative to MacPorts out there for this kind of useful software? I’m extremely pissed because MacPorts simply doesn’t work, and hasn’t and I keep getting sucked back into it because it appears to be the only way to install some applications that are very useful.

MacPorts people, wake the hell up. Fix your software. This is completely unacceptable. Why should it be this hard and this frustrating for me to install software with your port system?

PS: I just checked my own site, and the last time MacPorts pissed me off, it was for the same reason: An environment variable that was set wrong which prevents the software from compiling. Do you not test? Do you not read feedback from your users? Do your users not provide feedback? How does this kind of error make it to a production product? My server is nothing special, with no odd software or configuration, developer tools properly installed, the first MacPorts ever installed on this machine, and it’s broken. Unacceptable.