With archive mode enabled, any command tries to create the directory if it doesn't exist

[blb@…]

If you enable archive mode (portarchivemode yes in macports.conf), and the packages directory (${prefix}/var/macports/packages) doesn't yet exist, every port command will fail if not run as root, like 'port info':

$ /mp/bin/port info bind9
portarchivepath /mp/var/macports/packages does not exist and could not be created: can't create directory "/mp/var/macports/packages": permission denied
    while executing
"mportinit ui_options global_options global_variations"
Error: /mp/bin/port: Failed to initialize MacPorts, portarchivepath /mp/var/macports/packages does not exist and could not be created: can't create directory "/mp/var/macports/packages": permission denied

Since this is being done in mportinit​ it will always be hit when port runs; perhaps this should be created when necessary in package1.0/portarchive.tcl?

[tobypeterson]

Milestone MacPorts base bugs deleted

[nerdling (Jeremy Lavergne)]

Cc Me!

[nerdling (Jeremy Lavergne)]

Fixed in r60447.

Thanks!

[jmroot (Joshua Root)]

Wait, how does creating the directory in archive_init stop mportinit from failing?

[nerdling (Jeremy Lavergne)]

For me, when testing, the problem went away by placing it there.

For example, if the directory doesn't exist, calling port search NAME would fail. Placing a test to create it before it gets to the error is handled by archive_init.

[jmroot (Joshua Root)]

Still fails with latest trunk:

% /opt/mptest/bin/port info zlib 
portarchivepath /opt/mptest/var/macports/packages does not exist and could not be created: can't create directory "/opt/mptest/var/macports/packages": permission denied
    while executing
"mportinit ui_options global_options global_variations"
Error: /opt/mptest/bin/port: Failed to initialize MacPorts, portarchivepath /opt/mptest/var/macports/packages does not exist and could not be created: can't create directory "/opt/mptest/var/macports/packages": permission denied

[nerdling (Jeremy Lavergne)]

Looking again I do see that was silly of me.

I see two options: using warnings and disabling archivemode, or using the alternate build prefix. Any preference on which we fail to?

[nerdling (Jeremy Lavergne)]

In r60789 I've rolled back the changes from r60447, and I've added a permissions message in r60791.

[jmroot (Joshua Root)]

r66775