rb-builder: destroot fails on Mac OS X 10.5.8

[kaltree@…]

I'm running into a problem installing this gem. I get the following error upon install:

bash-3.2# port install rb-builder
--->  Computing dependencies for rb-builder
--->  Staging rb-builder into destroot
Error: Target org.macports.destroot returned: shell command failed (see log for details)
Log for rb-builder is at: /opt/local/var/macports/logs/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_release_ports_ruby_rb-builder/rb-builder/main.log
Error: Status 1 encountered during processing.
To report a bug, see <http://guide.macports.org/#project.tickets>

I have the other ruby-related items installed:

• ruby @1.8.7-p352_2+thread_hooks
• rb-libxml2 @1.1.3_0
• rb-rake @0.8.7_0
• rb-rubygems @1.3.7_0

I've installed this successfully on Snow Leopard and Lion, but it is failing consistently on several Leopard systems. Any suggestions? Attached is the 'main.log' file.

[kaltree@…]

Log file saved to '/opt/local/var/macports/logs/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_release_ports_ruby_rb-builder/rb-builder/main.log'.

[kaltree@…]

Cc Me!

[kaltree@…]

Note: I was successful in getting the gem installed, using the gem executable. I made sure I was using the executable stored at '/opt/local/bin/gem'. It did report an error installing the 'builder' gem, but this time it was during the ruby documentation generation. I'm curious if there is a bug in the port definition that reports an overall failure if any sub portion of the port script fails.

[ryandesign (Ryan Carsten Schmidt)]

The relevant error from your log seems to be:

:info:destroot WARNING: builder-2.1.2 has an invalid nil value for @cert_chain
:info:destroot ERROR:  While generating documentation for builder-2.1.2
:info:destroot ... MESSAGE:   Unhandled special: Special: type=17, text="<!-- HI -->"
:info:destroot ... RDOC args: --ri --op /opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_release_ports_ruby_rb-builder/rb-builder/work/destroot/opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/doc/builder-2.1.2/ri --title Builder -- Easy XML Building --main README --line-numbers lib CHANGES Rakefile README doc/releases/builder-1.2.4.rdoc doc/releases/builder-2.0.0.rdoc doc/releases/builder-2.1.1.rdoc --title builder-2.1.2 Documentation --quiet

I'm not familiar with ruby though and I don't know what this means or what to do about it.

[kaltree@…]

Thanks for the prompt response. Here is my understanding of what's happening - not sure if it's accurate, but just my thoughts...

The port 'rb-builder' is basically a script that invokes a ruby utility called 'gem' with some parameters - a utility that allows end users to manage ruby add-ons called 'gems'. If I install the 'builder' add-on using the 'gem' utiliity, it succeeds - however I still see the nil cert_chain warning and documentation generation error.

When invoking the gem utility directly (not using MacPorts) to install this add-on, the end result is I get the fore mentioned log messages showing in the terminal, but the gem is still installed and usable from within ruby. When attempting the install using MacPorts, the port install appears to abort installation at the first failure. In this case, the failure is happening during documentation generation and while it's important - it's probably okay to still allow the install, but inform the end user that some of the post install setup failed.

One thought on expected behavior in this case is to allow the install to proceed since the failure isn't a catastrophic failure, but warn the user that portions of the port install may have failed. In this case, the error likely lies within the ruby gem 'builder' script that the port script is executing. I'm not sure what the best behavior is for MacPorts, in the case where a non-critical failure occurs while processing a port script.

Thanks, Kevin

[jmroot (Joshua Root)]

There is an archive of rb-builder for Darwin 9 available now, so I can only assume this was fixed at some point.