ncursesw 5.6_0 can't find awk on Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard

[jeff@…]

On a fresh Leopard installation (Intel), 'sudo port install subversion' fails because ncursesw can't find awk:

elma:~ jeff$ sudo port install subversion
Password:
--->  Fetching apr
--->  Attempting to fetch apr-1.2.11.tar.bz2 from http://www.apache.org/dist/apr
--->  Verifying checksum(s) for apr
--->  Extracting apr
--->  Configuring apr
--->  Building apr with target all
--->  Staging apr into destroot
--->  Installing apr 1.2.11_0+darwin_9
--->  Activating apr 1.2.11_0+darwin_9
--->  Cleaning apr
--->  Fetching db44
--->  Attempting to fetch patch.4.4.20.1 from http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/berkeley-db/db/update/4.4.20/
--->  Attempting to fetch patch.4.4.20.2 from http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/berkeley-db/db/update/4.4.20/
--->  Attempting to fetch patch.4.4.20.3 from http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/berkeley-db/db/update/4.4.20/
--->  Attempting to fetch patch.4.4.20.4 from http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/berkeley-db/db/update/4.4.20/
--->  Attempting to fetch db-4.4.20.tar.gz from http://downloads.sleepycat.com/
--->  Verifying checksum(s) for db44
--->  Extracting db44
--->  Applying patches to db44
--->  Configuring db44
--->  Building db44 with target all
--->  Staging db44 into destroot
--->  Installing db44 4.4.20_1
--->  Activating db44 4.4.20_1
--->  Cleaning db44
--->  Fetching ncursesw
--->  Attempting to fetch ncurses-5.6.tar.gz from http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses
--->  Verifying checksum(s) for ncursesw
--->  Extracting ncursesw
--->  Applying patches to ncursesw
--->  Configuring ncursesw
Error: Target org.macports.configure returned: configure failure: shell command " cd "/opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_release_ports_devel_ncursesw/work/ncurses-5.6" && ./configure --prefix=/opt/local --enable-widec --disable-rpath --with-shared --without-debug --without-ada --enable-safe-sprintf --enable-sigwinch --mandir=/opt/local/share/man " returned error 1
Command output: checking for gcc... gcc
checking for C compiler default output... a.out
checking whether the C compiler works... yes
checking whether we are cross compiling... no
checking for executable suffix... 
checking for object suffix... o
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes
checking version of gcc... 4.0.1
checking how to run the C preprocessor... gcc -E
checking whether gcc needs -traditional... no
checking whether gcc understands -c and -o together... yes
checking for POSIXized ISC... no
checking for gcc option to accept ANSI C... -DCC_HAS_PROTOS
checking for ldconfig... no
checking if you want to ensure bool is consistent with C++... yes
checking for g++... g++
checking whether we are using the GNU C++ compiler... yes
checking whether g++ accepts -g... yes
checking for g++... /usr/bin/g++
checking version of g++... 4.0.1
checking if you want to build C++ binding and demo... yes
checking if you want to build with Ada95... no
checking if you want to build programs such as tic... yes
checking if you wish to install curses.h... yes
checking for mawk... (cached) no
checking for gawk... (cached) no
checking for nawk... (cached) no
checking for awk... (cached) no
configure: error: No awk program found

Error: The following dependencies failed to build: apr-util sqlite3 readline ncurses ncursesw gettext neon openssl
Error: Status 1 encountered during processing.
elma:~ jeff$ 

[afb@…]

Built OK here, with /usr/bin/awk.

Otherwise claim to need "gawk" port...

[ryandesign (Ryan Carsten Schmidt)]

But Anders, are you on Leopard or Tiger?

I never had a problem installing ncursesw on Tiger (without gawk installed), but a friend trying to install it on Leopard 10.5.1 just now encountered the error reported in this ticket. "sudo port install gawk" got him past it. I say ncursesw needs to depend on gawk, at least in a platform darwin 9 section. Or if you can figure out how to get ncursesw to find Leopard's awk, that'd be great too. But "which awk" shows "/usr/bin/awk" as one would expect so I don't know what's up.

[afb@…]

Replying to ryandesign@macports.org:

But Anders, are you on Leopard or Tiger?

Both, currently downgraded back to Tiger until Leopard works better but have it as a boot option.

Since it said checking for awk... (cached) no I figured it was a leftover cached from a previous run ?

[ryandesign (Ryan Carsten Schmidt)]

Since this is a problem, and we haven't heard from the maintainer, I'm committing a fix in r31770 to add a dependency on gawk for Leopard.

[wlipa (Bill Lipa)]

With MacPorts 1.6 and Leopard 10.5.1, this bug still occurs, even though gawk does get installed.

[wlipa (Bill Lipa)]

build log with failure to find awk/gawk

[wlipa (Bill Lipa)]

Repeating the ncursesw installation does appear to work, though:

numenor ~$ sudo port install ncursesw
Password:
--->  Configuring ncursesw
--->  Building ncursesw with target all
--->  Staging ncursesw into destroot
--->  Installing ncursesw 5.6_0+darwin_9
--->  Activating ncursesw 5.6_0+darwin_9
--->  Cleaning ncursesw

[macosforge@…]

Replying to ryandesign@macports.org:

Since this is a problem, and we haven't heard from the maintainer, I'm committing a fix in r31770 to add a dependency on gawk for Leopard.

This fix breaks the installation of gettext (at least), since gettext depends on ncurses, which depends on ncursesw, which depends (since your change) on gawk, which depends on gettext.

I deleted your fix and got no problem compiling ncursesw (i.e. awk was correctly found by macports 1.6 on Leopard). I suggest reverting this "fix" and mark this not reproducible.

[ipaschke@…]

I deleted your fix and got no problem compiling ncursesw (i.e. awk was correctly found by macports 1.6 on Leopard). I suggest reverting this "fix" and mark this not reproducible.

Confirmed (on a fresh 10.5.1 install): Most port installs fail with:

bash-3.2# port install ncurses
Error: The following dependencies failed to build: ncursesw gawk gettext
Error: Status 1 encountered during processing.

Reverting the gawk-dependency in ncursesw worked for me.

[ryandesign (Ryan Carsten Schmidt)]

I see ​more ​reports that depending on gawk is not a complete fix; the install must be attempted twice before an awk program is found. I wonder if that would work as well if gawk were not present.

I'm undoing r31770 in r32727. If you experience this bug now, simply try "sudo port install ncursesw" again, and let us know if that worked or not.

[afb@…]

I think there is a configure.env-append AWK=/usr/bin/awk in the future of ncursesw on darwin_9...

[ryandesign (Ryan Carsten Schmidt)]

Has duplicate #13907.

[george@…]

I can confirm this issue and work around on numerous Leopard MacPorts 1.600 installs.

On the second attempt to install a package (subversion) which depends on awk, it works after failing the first try.

[akira@…]

How about adding depend_lib gawk?

[blb@…]

Dup of #13930.