base aborts if current directory does not exist, even when given a port name

[larryv (Lawrence Velázquez)]

Sorry for the awkward summary. This demonstrates what I mean:

% mkdir foo
% cd foo
% (cd .. && rmdir foo)
% cd $(port dir subversion)
shell-init: error retrieving current directory: getcwd: cannot access parent directories: No such file or directory
error getting working directory name: no such file or directory
    while executing
"pwd"
    invoked from within
"set current_portdir [pwd]"
    (file "/opt/local/bin/port" line 4857)
%

This error only makes sense when invoking port(1) without specifying a port, since it looks for a Portfile in the current working directory.

I assume the same behavior would be observed with the -D option.

[cooljeanius (Eric Gallager)]

Cc Me!

[cooljeanius (Eric Gallager)]

I found that if you split up the (cd .. && rmdir foo) into two separate commands, this error doesn't happen:

Local-Admins-MacBook-Pro:foo ericgallager$ cd ..
Local-Admins-MacBook-Pro:MacPorts-fork ericgallager$ rmdir foo
Local-Admins-MacBook-Pro:MacPorts-fork ericgallager$ cd $(port dir subversion)

vs.

Local-Admins-MacBook-Pro:foo ericgallager$ (cd .. && rmdir foo)
Local-Admins-MacBook-Pro:foo ericgallager$ cd $(port dir subversion)

I guess that's because in the first case, the directory isn't actually getting deleted out from under you...

[Ionic (Mihai Moldovan)]

No, you're changing other semantics.

() spawns a subshell and cd .. does only apply to this child process. The parent's PWD is not affected (and will stay the deleted directory.)

[Ionic (Mihai Moldovan)]

This issue should be elevated to CRITICAL because it affects me!

In all seriousness, though, it's annoying. I often cd $(port work foo) to patch/do random stuff. While cleaning explicitly or running other operations on the port foo, this directory gets deleted and re-created (as it should be.)

Due to port's inability to work in an "invalid" $PWD, I have to cd . to get into the newly created dir (a zsh-only feature, I assume) and run the port operation again.

[chrstphrchvz (Christopher Chavez)]

There are a number of times this error has been reported/mentioned/encountered: #24687, #33687, #33953, #41668, #52600, various mailing list posts.

I think at a minimum there should be a more helpful error message to suggest the workaround of cding to an existent/accessible directory, e.g. cd ~.

[JDLH (Jim DeLaHunt)]

This problem just affected me. In my case, MacPorts Base and all ports appeared to be fine. My current working directory was a subdirectory of ~/Desktop/, and for some reason I can no longer list the contents of ~/Desktop/ with ls. This apparently was enough to make pwd unusable by MacPorts Base. The symptoms of this ticket followed. I fixed it by changing my current working directory to ~.

[cooljeanius (Eric Gallager)]

You may need to grant MacPorts access to your Home directory (and any relevant subdirectories) in the "Privacy" section of the "Security & Privacy" system prefpane for this to work; I'll attach a screenshot of what it ought to look like.

[cooljeanius (Eric Gallager)]

screenshot of MacPorts (and related binaries) having been granted Full Disk Access in System Preferences