octave @4.0.2: The file “Info.plist” couldn’t be opened because there is no such file

[scaetd]

With octave 4.0.2 the Build phase appears to bomb out because the Info.plist file is not where it is looking in the Contents directory. I will attach the main.log of my recent octave install attempt which followed a port clean and the prior to that similar fail. I was able to install octave 3.8.2 but not this new version. Thank you for your inputs and help on this. I am using a newly purchased Mac mini with El Capitan OS X 10.11.4 I also had similar failures with prior attempts to install octave-devel and octave-devel-release fyi.

[ryandesign (Ryan Carsten Schmidt)]

Works for me.

Your log shows the creation of directories, followed by the failure of plutil to convert the Info.plist from binary to xml format. In between those steps, which would not be shown in the log, was supposed to be the creation of the Info.plist by use of the defaults command. Could it be there is a problem with your defaults command? Try doing some simple tests with the defaults command, such as:

/usr/bin/defaults write /tmp/Info foo bar
/usr/bin/defaults read /tmp/Info

If successful, should print out:

{
    foo = bar;
}

[scaetd]

Ok I did the test with those two lines to see if "defaults" write and read utility works on my system. It sure enough worked since it printed to the screen the "foo = bat;" line that you wrote that it should.

Is there another fault scenario with Octave 4.0.2 that may have led to the Info.plist file gone missing during the Build phase?

Thx for your help and suggestions!

[MarcusCalhoun-Lopez (Marcus Calhoun-Lopez)]

This is only a guess, but perhaps it is a permissions issue.
After installation of octave fails, please run

cd /opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_release_tarballs_ports_math_octave/octave/work/octave-4.0.2/Octave.app/Contents/
ls -al
file Info.plist

Hopefully, you get something roughly like:

total 8
drwxr-xr-x  5 macports  staff  170 May 21 10:22 ./
drwxr-xr-x  3 macports  staff  102 May 21 10:22 ../
-rw-------  1 macports  staff  491 May 21 10:22 Info.plist
drwxr-xr-x  3 macports  staff  102 May 21 10:22 MacOS/
drwxr-xr-x  2 macports  staff   68 May 21 10:22 Resources/

Info.plist: Apple binary property list

[scaetd]

ok. Thx for your suggestion. Tried that. Looks like the binary version of Info.plist was not created or was deleted or something before further work could be done using it. Here is copy of my session at terminal to check things per your recommendation:

Macintosh-0016cbd130da:~ tommyD$ cd /opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_release_tarballs_ports_math_octave/octave/work/octave-4.0.2/Octave.app/Contents/

Macintosh-0016cbd130da:Contents tommyD$ pwd

/opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_release_tarballs_ports_math_octave/octave/work/octave-4.0.2/Octave.app/Contents

Macintosh-0016cbd130da:Contents tommyD$ ls -al

total 0
drwxr-xr-x  4 macports  admin  136 May 17 20:21 .
drwxr-xr-x  3 macports  admin  102 May 17 20:21 ..
drwxr-xr-x  3 macports  admin  102 May 17 20:21 MacOS
drwxr-xr-x  2 macports  admin   68 May 17 20:21 Resources

Macintosh-0016cbd130da:Contents tommyD$ ls -al file Info.plist

ls: Info.plist: No such file or directory
ls: file: No such file or directory

Macintosh-0016cbd130da:Contents tommyD$ ls

MacOS		Resources

Macintosh-0016cbd130da:Contents tommyD$ 

You can see from above that the Info.plist file does not exist in the Contents directory.

I already did the port clean step and retried the port install, leaving the state of the machine as is which on inquiry shows no Info.plist . Could the octave-devel failed installation be conflicting with this octave port attempt? I believe the same problem was at the root of that port failing as well.

Thanks for your continued help on this. I really look forward to using Octave with the Featool m-script to do some finite element analysis hobby work during my retirement years!

Too bad that current Apple Customer Care department policy prevents their staff from helping out on install of 3rd party packages on their nice machines. The onus to debug problems falls on the customer and their 3rd party package developers which in this case is the purchaser of their Mac Mini, (non-software developer retired me seeking home based finite element analysis capability on same machine as my thousands of photographs stored), and the open source code Octave and Macports volunteer communities, (you and others on this Trac list for this ticket). I'm surprised that so many good science / tech' / math oriented software install and run well on Windows machines but not Apple machines, given the HUGE economic impact of the STEM community which should be of high interest to Apple Inc.. This is the case be it "non-profit" oriented open source s/w developed by volunteers or "for profit" 3rd party s/w companies. In my humble opinion Apple Inc. should shake loose a million or two to fix this glaring problem of theirs. Volunteers and 3rd party STEM s/w developers can fix things but sometimes only at very slow pace due to low or zero economic motivation factors. At a minimum I hope Apple Inc. will change their policy to enable their good Customer Care folks to help on these matters.

[etienne.chantoiseau@…]

log for "sudo port install octave-devel" after cleaning

[etienne.chantoiseau@…]

I have the same problem for both 'octave' and 'octave-devel'

I have no visible problem with the default command, but no 'info.plist' file is created

[scaetd]

log file for crash of port install octave after updating system and Xcode

[scaetd]

Updated my system and Xcode to latest available versions and then tried the port clean and port install of octave. Same problem appeared to happen but attached the main.log error file to this ticket for your review.

[gh224391@…]

Hello,

same problem here. Finally, i've found an Info.plist here: /opt/local/var/macports/sources/rsync.macports.org/release/tarballs/ports/math/octave-legacy/files/Info.plist

you have to type:

sudo cp /opt/local/var/macports/sources/rsync.macports.org/release/tarballs/ports/math/octave-legacy/files/Info.plist /opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_release_tarballs_ports_math_octave/octave/work/octave-4.0.2/Octave.app/Contents/Info.plist

and change the owner:

sudo chown macports:admin /opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_release_tarballs_ports_math_octave/octave/work/octave-4.0.2/Octave.app/Contents/Info.plist

after that, compilation succeed and everything is fine.

hth,

G.

[MarcusCalhoun-Lopez (Marcus Calhoun-Lopez)]

Replying to gh224391@…:

Hello,

same problem here. Finally, i've found an Info.plist here: /opt/local/var/macports/sources/rsync.macports.org/release/tarballs/ports/math/octave-legacy/files/Info.plist

Please do not do this.
Even if it happens to work now, it will almost certainly fail in the future.
The Info.plist file you found is from an old version of octave.

[MarcusCalhoun-Lopez (Marcus Calhoun-Lopez)]

If we are to track down the error, I need a little more information.
Attached is a patch that will print out more of the installation process.
If you wouldn't mind a little testing, you can apply the patch with the following commands.

sudo port selfupdate
sudo port clean octave
cd /opt/local/var/macports/sources/rsync.macports.org/release/tarballs/ports/math/octave
curl https://trac.macports.org/attachment/ticket/51424/Portfile01.diff?format=raw -o Portfile01.diff
patch -p0 < Portfile01.diff
rm Portfile01.diff
sudo port destroot octave

The main.log file should now at least give more information as to why this is failing.

[scaetd]

I don't mind doing some testing, but the curl command did not work. Here is my experience using the curl, patch and rm commands you suggested after completing the first two sudo commands and the cd command. Since the curl command appeared to fail and the following patch and rm commands appeared to fail I did not proceed to the last sudo port destroot octave command:

Macintosh-0016cbd130da:octave tommyD$ curl https://trac.macports.org/attachment/ticket/51424/Portfile01.diff?format=raw -o Portfile01.diff
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
  0     0    0     0    0     0      0      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--     0Warning: Failed to create the file Portfile01.diff: No such file or directory
100  1161  100  1161    0     0   2147      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--  2157
curl: (23) Failed writing body (0 != 1161)
Macintosh-0016cbd130da:octave tommyD$ patch -p0 < Portfile01.diff
-bash: Portfile01.diff: No such file or directory
Macintosh-0016cbd130da:octave tommyD$ rm Portfile01.diff
rm: Portfile01.diff: No such file or directory

[MarcusCalhoun-Lopez (Marcus Calhoun-Lopez)]

I install MacPorts as a low privilege user.
As such, the use of sudo is often unnecessary.
Adding sudo before curl, patch, and rm might allow the procedure to work.
Setting up a ​local repository would allow you to avoid much of this sudo business.

[scaetd]

O.k. the sudo before curl, patch and rm commands of your suggestion in prior comment worked well. The build still failed but maybe the main.log has more information for your debugging. Will attach to this ticket.

[scaetd]

main.log file from failed build attempt after mod's related to sudo curl, patch and rm debug revisions

[MarcusCalhoun-Lopez (Marcus Calhoun-Lopez)]

main.4.log seems to be the log file for an installation of expat and not octave.

[etienne.chantoiseau@…]

ok, I tested the procedure from mcalhound, and I have an error for octave:

It updated some unrelated ports and then qscintilla and fltk-devel]

An after that :

--->  Computing dependencies for octave
--->  Fetching distfiles for octave
--->  Verifying checksums for octave
--->  Extracting octave
--->  Applying patches to octave
--->  Configuring octave
--->  Building octave
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

            CFBundleDevelopmentRegion     English
            CFBundleExecutable            Octave
            CFBundleIconFile              Octave.icns
            CFBundleDocumentTypes         {-array '{"CFBundleTypeExtensions" = ("m"); "CFBundleTypeOSTypes" = ("Mfile"); "CFBundleTypeRole" = "Editor";}'}
            CFBundleIdentifier            org.octave.Octave
            CFBundleInfoDictionaryVersion 6.0
            CFBundleSignature             Octave
            CFBundleVersion               4.0.2
            CFBundleShortVersionString    4.0.2
        
CFBundleDevelopmentRegion English
/usr/bin/defaults write /opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_release_tarballs_ports_math_octave/octave/work/octave-4.0.2/Octave.app/Contents/Info CFBundleDevelopmentRegion English
CFBundleExecutable Octave
/usr/bin/defaults write /opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_release_tarballs_ports_math_octave/octave/work/octave-4.0.2/Octave.app/Contents/Info CFBundleExecutable Octave
CFBundleIconFile Octave.icns
/usr/bin/defaults write /opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_release_tarballs_ports_math_octave/octave/work/octave-4.0.2/Octave.app/Contents/Info CFBundleIconFile Octave.icns
CFBundleDocumentTypes -array '{"CFBundleTypeExtensions" = ("m"); "CFBundleTypeOSTypes" = ("Mfile"); "CFBundleTypeRole" = "Editor";}'
/usr/bin/defaults write /opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_release_tarballs_ports_math_octave/octave/work/octave-4.0.2/Octave.app/Contents/Info CFBundleDocumentTypes -array '{"CFBundleTypeExtensions" = ("m"); "CFBundleTypeOSTypes" = ("Mfile"); "CFBundleTypeRole" = "Editor";}'
CFBundleIdentifier org.octave.Octave
/usr/bin/defaults write /opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_release_tarballs_ports_math_octave/octave/work/octave-4.0.2/Octave.app/Contents/Info CFBundleIdentifier org.octave.Octave
CFBundleInfoDictionaryVersion 6.0
/usr/bin/defaults write /opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_release_tarballs_ports_math_octave/octave/work/octave-4.0.2/Octave.app/Contents/Info CFBundleInfoDictionaryVersion 6.0
CFBundleSignature Octave
/usr/bin/defaults write /opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_release_tarballs_ports_math_octave/octave/work/octave-4.0.2/Octave.app/Contents/Info CFBundleSignature Octave
CFBundleVersion 4.0.2
/usr/bin/defaults write /opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_release_tarballs_ports_math_octave/octave/work/octave-4.0.2/Octave.app/Contents/Info CFBundleVersion 4.0.2
CFBundleShortVersionString 4.0.2
/usr/bin/defaults write /opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_release_tarballs_ports_math_octave/octave/work/octave-4.0.2/Octave.app/Contents/Info CFBundleShortVersionString 4.0.2
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Error: org.macports.build for port octave returned: command execution failed
To report a bug, follow the instructions in the guide:
    http://guide.macports.org/#project.tickets
Error: Processing of port octave failed

There is no mention of a log file and I don't know where to find it...

[scaetd]

for debug purposes hopefully, via "sudo port install octave", instead of "sudo port destroot octave"

[scaetd]

I find any recent main.log files using the regular TextEdit utility program on my mac by firing it up and then just searching for main.log . After using Octave Maintainer mcalhoun suggested commands including that "port destroot octave" command, (which I'm unsure of since I think it shortcuts things), it produced the main.4.log file with the weird expat stuff in it. Around the time of the build my system also crashed for some reason so maybe that was possible reason for the weird looking main.log file with expat in it.

Anyway I went back, did the usual sudo port selfupdate, sudo port clean octave, also the other curl, patch, rm commands of mcalhoun and then just issued the regular "sudo port install octave" command instead of the destroot version of that. It produced a different kind of main.log file which I'm attaching and hopefully will be useful for debugging by mcalhoun and/or any others.

I am so thankful for the help of Octave Maintainer mcalhoun and others on this matter! If we keep at it I'm sure the problem can be found and fixed. I've been advised to just spend a few hundred bucks to move on and just get the commercial Matlab but that is a couple of hundred bucks that I'd prefer to save if possible, since this activity for now is just for my retired hobby purposes. So far it has been a lot of fun for me to learn about such things as package managers, the vast amount of open source software, and the community of people and their methods for managing the ports! Even this Trac system for tracking the details of problems is an incredibly valuable thing to learn about. I can imagine a lot of applications for it in other domains where detailed means of tracking customer and member feedback suggestions is needed toward continuous improvements in systems.

[MarcusCalhoun-Lopez (Marcus Calhoun-Lopez)]

Hopefully, r149072 fixed the problem.
xinstall should not use the -p switch (I was probably thinking of mkdir -p).
Perhaps this caused xinstall and a few subsequent commands to fail silently until /usr/bin/plutil complained.
On my system at least, /usr/bin/defaults does fail silently if the file it is attempting to write to does not exist.

Please run

sudo port clean octave
sudo port selfupdate
sudo port install octave

and see if octave installs.

Thanks for your help in tracking down this problem.

[JonoMH]

Hi, just to let you know, I'm also trying to install Octave right now but although the selfupdate did update the port file, I am still getting that error when I do "sudo port install octave". I think that there might be something else that you're overlooking. I don't know why I'm still getting that error.

[MarcusCalhoun-Lopez (Marcus Calhoun-Lopez)]

Replying to hartman.jonathan2@…:

Hi, just to let you know, I'm also trying to install Octave right now but although the selfupdate did update the port file, I am still getting that error when I do "sudo port install octave".

Thanks for the report.
Did you run

sudo port clean octave
sudo port selfupdate
sudo port install octave

recently?
The proposed fix was just posted a couple of hours ago.

[etienne.chantoiseau@…]

I have the same error after a selfupdate one hour ago (log in main.6.log above).

According to /opt/local/var/macports/sources/rsync.macports.org/release/tarballs/ports/math/octave/Portfile the -p switches are not present on the version that I tested.

[MarcusCalhoun-Lopez (Marcus Calhoun-Lopez)]

Replying to etienne.chantoiseau@…:

I have the same error after a selfupdate one hour ago (log in main.6.log above).

According to /opt/local/var/macports/sources/rsync.macports.org/release/tarballs/ports/math/octave/Portfile the -p switches are not present on the version that I tested.

I had hoped the -p switch was the problem.
I must admit that I am at a bit of a loss.
Could you please run

ls -al /opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_release_tarballs_ports_math_octave/octave/work/octave-4.0.2/Octave.app/Contents/

and post the results.

[etienne.chantoiseau@…]

Replying to mcalhoun@…:

Replying to etienne.chantoiseau@…:

I have the same error after a selfupdate one hour ago (log in main.6.log above).

According to /opt/local/var/macports/sources/rsync.macports.org/release/tarballs/ports/math/octave/Portfile the -p switches are not present on the version that I tested.

I had hoped the -p switch was the problem.
I must admit that I am at a bit of a loss.
Could you please run

ls -al /opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_release_tarballs_ports_math_octave/octave/work/octave-4.0.2/Octave.app/Contents/

and post the results.

I have:

ls -al /opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_release_tarballs_ports_math_octave/octave/work/octave-4.0.2/Octave.app/Contents/
total 0
drwxr-xr-x  4 macports  wheel  136 28 mai 19:13 .
drwxr-xr-x  3 macports  wheel  102 28 mai 19:13 ..
drwxr-xr-x  3 macports  wheel  102 28 mai 19:13 MacOS
drwxr-xr-x  2 macports  wheel   68 28 mai 19:13 Resources

[JonoMH]

Replying to mcalhoun@…:

Replying to etienne.chantoiseau@…:

I have the same error after a selfupdate one hour ago (log in main.6.log above).

According to /opt/local/var/macports/sources/rsync.macports.org/release/tarballs/ports/math/octave/Portfile the -p switches are not present on the version that I tested.

I had hoped the -p switch was the problem.
I must admit that I am at a bit of a loss.
Could you please run

ls -al /opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_release_tarballs_ports_math_octave/octave/work/octave-4.0.2/Octave.app/Contents/

and post the results.

I've got

ls -al /opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_release_tarballs_ports_math_octave/octave/work/octave-4.0.2/Octave.app/Contents/
total 0
drwxr-xr-x  4 macports  admin  136 May 28 19:40 .
drwxr-xr-x  3 macports  admin  102 May 28 19:40 ..
drwxr-xr-x  3 macports  admin  102 May 28 19:40 MacOS
drwxr-xr-x  2 macports  admin   68 May 28 19:40 Resources

[maehne (Torsten Maehne)]

Cc Me!

[scaetd]

I did the commands recommended though in a different order as such:

sudo port selfupdate
sudo port clean octave
sudo port install octave

Sadly, the build still failed. I have not yet looked at the errors in the log file but will attach to this ticket.

[scaetd]

after doing sudo port selfupdate, sudo port clean octave & sudo port install octave

[MarcusCalhoun-Lopez (Marcus Calhoun-Lopez)]

I ​posted a query about his issue on the MacPorts mailing list.
Since using /usr/bin/defaults to write to a plist file is deprecated, I switch to PlistBuddy instead.
Does r149146 fix the problem?

sudo port clean octave
sudo port selfupdate
sudo port install octave

[etienne.chantoiseau@…]

Replying to mcalhoun@…:

I ​posted a query about his issue on the MacPorts mailing list.
Since using /usr/bin/defaults to write to a plist file is deprecated, I switch to PlistBuddy instead.
Does r149146 fix the problem?

sudo port clean octave
sudo port selfupdate
sudo port install octave

Yes !

It builds fine for me and the gui work ! (by the way I'm on mac os x 10.11.5 )

Thanks a lot for the fix

[maehne (Torsten Maehne)]

I also can confirm that the octave port now builds and installs correctly on OS X 10.11.5 for the default set variant.

[scaetd]

I was able to build and install octave on my mac mini OS 10.11.5 using recommended

sudo port clean octave
sudo port selfupdate
sudo port install octave

but encountered graphics problems for the app' that I am attempting to use with octave. Don't have the MacTex Latex installed.

Received following error message during the build:

unless octave is run with --no-gui-libs, graphics_toolkit("fltk") will cause a
crash
--->  Cleaning octave
--->  Updating database of binaries
--->  Scanning binaries for linking errors
--->  No broken files found.

Tested octave out without using above recommended --no-gui-libs variant. It came up with nice looking graphics but when I attempted to use the vender supplied m-script based "featool" from Precision Simulation their graphics routines may have called up some fancier stuff which led to missing features in their example problem windows. This was alluded to in another macports octave ticket with a different number. Will try to find and install the MacTex Latex on my mac and per recommendation of the other ticket will set the path so the mac library for that appears first so it will be preferentially used by octave. If I have continued problems will report on that in the other ticket for that problem though I'm not sure it is a problem of lack of MacTex Latex graphics so will also be working with Precision Simulation who claim that their featool works on octave as well as Matlab.

[MarcusCalhoun-Lopez (Marcus Calhoun-Lopez)]

As far as I can tell, this particular problem seems to be fixed.
We can open a new ticket if another problem comes up.

[ryandesign (Ryan Carsten Schmidt)]

Replying to dohertyt@…:

I find any recent main.log files using the regular TextEdit utility program on my mac by firing it up and then just searching for main.log . After using Octave Maintainer mcalhoun suggested commands including that "port destroot octave" command, (which I'm unsure of since I think it shortcuts things), it produced the main.4.log file with the weird expat stuff in it. Around the time of the build my system also crashed for some reason so maybe that was possible reason for the weird looking main.log file with expat in it.

It's more likely that you ran into #37093, or, if you were using TextEdit to locate the log (instead of using the location MacPorts printed for you), that you selected the wrong log file.