ds9 does not install on El Capitan

[viraj.pandya@…]

I'm trying to install the port 'ds9' (common for astronomy) on my Mac OS X El Capitan, but it fails:

[...]
--->  Building ds9
Error: org.macports.build for port ds9 returned: command execution failed
To report a bug, follow the instructions in the guide:
    http://guide.macports.org/#project.tickets
Error: Processing of port ds9 failed

There are no other details about why the installation failed. Based on previous tickets, the ds9 port seems to have been an issue for previous Mac OS versions as well.

Is there anything I can do to make this port work?

[larryv (Lawrence Velázquez)]

Please clean the port and try installing again. If it fails, attach the file given by port logfile ds9 to this ticket.

[viraj.pandya@…]

I did 'sudo port clean ds9' and then 'sudo port install ds9' again. It worked this time! But now when I type ds9 in a new terminal, it says command not found. Also when I try sudo port select ds9, I get "Warning: Unable to get active selected version: The specified group 'ds9' does not exist. Error: The 'list' command failed: The specified group 'ds9' does not exist."

I get a similar 'ImportError: No module named pyds9' even though "sudo port install py27-pyds9" DID work. The specified group 'py27-ds9' or 'pyds9' does not exist when I try doing port select py27-pyds9 (or port select pyds9).

[larryv (Lawrence Velázquez)]

Replying to viraj.pandya@…:

I did 'sudo port clean ds9' and then 'sudo port install ds9' again. It worked this time! But now when I type ds9 in a new terminal, it says command not found. Also when I try sudo port select ds9, I get "Warning: Unable to get active selected version: The specified group 'ds9' does not exist. Error: The 'list' command failed: The specified group 'ds9' does not exist."

There probably isn’t a ds9 select group.

I get a similar 'ImportError: No module named pyds9' even though "sudo port install py27-pyds9" DID work. The specified group 'py27-ds9' or 'pyds9' does not exist when I try doing port select py27-pyds9 (or port select pyds9).

What do you see when you run port contents ds9 py27-pyds9?

[viraj.pandya@…]

Ok, so it turns out import pyds9 doesn't work even though that's the package name, but import ds9 does work in python. So this part is resolved -- thanks!

On the topic of the port ds9, it turns out it's an application so macports installed it in /Applications/MacPorts/SAOImage\ DS9.app/

Anytime I've installed ds9 (especially directly from ​http://ds9.si.edu/site/Home.html), it's been available on the command line with just the 'ds9' command. And it also allows optional command line arguments. Is this not possible with the macports version? Should I just install from the official site above?

[viraj.pandya@…]

One last edit -- it appears that ds9 comes in two flavors (based on ​http://ds9.si.edu/site/Home.html). There's a .app version (which is what MacPorts installs) and an X11 version. The latter allows command line functionality but the former does not, which is unfortunate.

This ticket can be closed -- thank you for your help with the installation and figuring this out!

[larryv (Lawrence Velázquez)]

No problem. The ds9 port does have an +x11 variant, so you could install that if you really want the command-line functionality.