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

[estrnod@…]

I am running OS X 10.4.11 on Powerbook G4. I had the same error above with 'port upgrade outdated' on MacPorts 1.7.0 (having done a successful selfupdate but 'port upgrade outdated' failed. I installed (upgraded to) 1.8.2 over 1.7.0 from a dmg, did another selfupdate, then tried 'port upgrade outdated' but it still failed with the error in the summary above. So I uninstalled all the ports I had and then tried installing openjdk6, which again gave me the above error. I then completely removed the MacPorts installation (using the command on the macports website for uninstalling (rm -rf ...) and reinstalled it, and then retried the openjdk6 install. Here is the text with -d from the most recent openjdk install attempt:

port -d install openjdk6
DEBUG: Found port in file:///opt/local/var/macports/sources/rsync.macports.org/release/ports/java/openjdk6
DEBUG: Changing to port directory: /opt/local/var/macports/sources/rsync.macports.org/release/ports/java/openjdk6
DEBUG: invalid command name "ui_channels"
    invoked from within
"ui_channels $priority"
    (procedure "macports::ui_init" line 4)
    invoked from within
"macports::ui_init debug {OS Platform: darwin}"
    ("eval" body line 1)
    invoked from within
"eval macports::ui_init debug $args "
    (procedure "ui_debug" line 1)
    invoked from within
"ui_debug "OS Platform: [option os.platform]""
    (file "/opt/local/share/macports/Tcl/port1.0/portmain.tcl" line 103)
    invoked from within
"source /opt/local/share/macports/Tcl/port1.0/portmain.tcl"
    ("package ifneeded" script)
    invoked from within
"package require portmain 1.0"
    (file "/opt/local/share/macports/Tcl/port1.0/port.tcl" line 36)
    invoked from within
"source /opt/local/share/macports/Tcl/port1.0/port.tcl"
    ("package ifneeded" script)
    invoked from within
"package require port $version "
    (procedure "PortSystem" line 2)
    invoked from within
"PortSystem 1.0"
    (file "Portfile" line 3)
    invoked from within
"source Portfile"
    invoked from within
"$workername eval source Portfile"
    (procedure "mportopen" line 46)
    invoked from within
"mportopen $porturl [array get options] [array get requested_variations]"
Error: Unable to open port: invalid command name "ui_channels"
To report a bug, see <http://guide.macports.org/#project.tickets>

[jmroot (Joshua Root)]

Please remember to preview and use WikiFormatting. As per the ticket guidelines linked from the New Ticket page, the High priority is reserved for the use of MacPorts team members.

[jmroot (Joshua Root)]

I'm unable to reproduce this on a ppc Tiger machine. Looking at the code, there would have to be a bug in Tcl for this to happen, as the existence of ui_channels is explicitly checked before calling it. Have you changed Apple's stock Tcl installation in any way?

[estrnod@…]

I don't remember having done so but it is possible.

[jmroot (Joshua Root)]

#22262

[estrnod@…]

I found that I had installed a different version. Before I discovered this, though, I installed ActiveTCL 8.5 (which installs it in /usr/local/bin and I had to make a symlink of /usr/bin/tclsh to it for port to work) and that solved the problem. (reverting might have also but I suspect I installed a different version to fix something else.)

Thanks for the tcl tip.