ncurses @5.9_1 failure to install error

[butler.464@…]

I just reinstalled MacPorts on Mac OS 10.7.3 after having to uninstall it a while ago (note: I know nothing about computers, possibly did this improperly). I'm trying to reinstall povray but I get the following error:

Error: org.macports.activate for port ncurses returned: Image error: /opt/local/share/terminfo/70/p12 already exists and does not belong to a registered port.  Unable to activate port ncurses. Use 'port -f activate ncurses' to force the activation.
Error: Failed to install ncurses
Please see the log file for port ncurses for details:
    /opt/local/var/macports/logs/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_release_tarballs_ports_devel_ncurses/ncurses/main.log

i have already tried this after sudo port uninstall ncurses and sudo port clean ncurses but it still doesn't work. i'm sure i'm doing something silly and would be grateful for any help, thanks!

[ryandesign (Ryan Carsten Schmidt)]

Image error: /opt/local/share/terminfo/70/p12 already exists and does not belong to a registered port.  Unable to activate port ncurses. Use 'port -f activate ncurses' to force the activation.

The question is: why does /opt/local/share/terminfo/70/p12 already exist but not belong to a registered port? If you've just installed MacPorts, there shouldn't be any rogue files in /opt/local, but the fact that there are suggests that either a previous MacPorts uninstallation attempt was not totally successful, or that you've installed another software package that was incorrectly configured to put files into the MacPorts prefix. Either way, the simplest solution is to follow the ​MacPorts uninstallation instructions, including the sudo rm -rf command, then reinstall MacPorts and the ports you want.

[jmroot (Joshua Root)]

Yeah, the existence of the conflicting file is the problem, it's not a bug in the port.