Unable to open port: invalid command name "ui_channels"

[gkg@…]

I have a mac 10.5.8, intel core 2 duo processor. When I try running "port info gnuplot", or "port install gnuplot" I get the following error.

Unable to open port: invalid command name "ui_channels".

This doesn't just happen with gnuplot. When I try "port info tree", I get the same error. I have macport version 1.8.1. Please help,

[blb@…]

Sounds like there may be a problem with MacPorts itself; try installing ​from the DMG and see if that fixes it.

[gkg@…]

I still get the same error. I even tried deleting the files, and reinstalling, but no changes. I tried restarting the machine, but no changes. Any other tips I could try? thanks,

Replying to blb@…:

Sounds like there may be a problem with MacPorts itself; try installing ​from the DMG and see if that fixes it.

[blb@…]

What is the result of the following?

$ which port
$ ls -l /Library/Tcl/macports1.0
$ ls -l `which port`
$ port version

[gkg@…]

$ which port
/opt/local/bin/port

$ ls -l /Library/Tcl/macports1.0
total 416
-r--r--r--  1 root  admin   39308 Sep 28 18:03 MacPorts.dylib
-r--r--r--  1 root  admin  110965 Sep 28 18:03 macports.tcl
-r--r--r--  1 root  admin    2272 Sep 28 18:03 macports_autoconf.tcl
-r--r--r--  1 root  admin   12036 Sep 28 18:03 macports_dlist.tcl
-r--r--r--  1 root  admin    3679 Sep 28 18:03 macports_fastload.tcl
-r--r--r--  1 root  admin   12548 Sep 28 18:03 macports_index.tcl
-r--r--r--  1 root  admin   13086 Sep 28 18:03 macports_util.tcl
-r--r--r--  1 root  admin     895 Sep 28 18:03 pkgIndex.tcl

$ ls -l 'which port'
ls: which port: No such file or directory

$ port version
Version: 1.8.1

[jmroot (Joshua Root)]

As I mentioned in the duplicate ticket #24588, the existence of ui_channels is explicitly checked before calling it. So this looks like a Tcl bug, and since most people don't have this problem, I would suspect modifications to Apple's stock Tcl installation.

[jmroot (Joshua Root)]

As the reporter of #24588 found that they had installed a different version of Tcl over the top of Apple's, we'll assume that's what happened here too.