avarice @2.13_1: error: You need to install libbfd.a from binutils, or configure with --disable-target-programming

[neilt (Neil Tiffin)]

% sudo port install avarice
--->  Computing dependencies for avarice
--->  Fetching archive for avarice
--->  Attempting to fetch avarice-2.13_1.darwin_19.x86_64.tbz2 from https://packages.macports.org/avarice
--->  Attempting to fetch avarice-2.13_1.darwin_19.x86_64.tbz2 from http://aus.us.packages.macports.org/macports/packages/avarice
--->  Attempting to fetch avarice-2.13_1.darwin_19.x86_64.tbz2 from https://ywg.ca.packages.macports.org/mirror/macports/packages/avarice
--->  Fetching distfiles for avarice
--->  Verifying checksums for avarice
--->  Extracting avarice
--->  Configuring avarice
Error: Failed to configure avarice, consult /opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_macports_release_tarballs_ports_cross_avarice/avarice/work/avarice-2.13/config.log
Error: Failed to configure avarice: configure failure: command execution failed
Error: See /opt/local/var/macports/logs/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_macports_release_tarballs_ports_cross_avarice/avarice/main.log for details.
Error: Follow https://guide.macports.org/#project.tickets to report a bug.
Error: Processing of port avarice failed

Relevant line from the logs:

:info:configure configure: error: You need to install libbfd.a from binutils, or configure with --disable-target-programming.

Manually installed binutils. Cleaned the avarice port. Tried to install again. Failed again, different problem. First error:

:info:build jtag2prog.cc:164:12: error: use of undeclared identifier 'bfd_get_section_name'; did you mean 'bfd_get_section_by_name'?
:info:build     name = bfd_get_section_name(file, section);

Log attached.

[neilt (Neil Tiffin)]

Log file from the last failure.

[ryandesign (Ryan Carsten Schmidt)]

On High Sierra I see the same:

error: You need to install libbfd.a from binutils, or configure with --disable-target-programming

However we were able to build this version of avarice successfully on Catalina in December 2019, on Mojave in October 2018 and on other macOS versions back in 2017. So something must have changed in avarice's dependencies.

It looks like this was a deliberate change in avr-binutils and all the other cross binutils ports. The cross ports no longer have libbdf or its headers; the main binutils port now does. So installing the binutils port appears to have been the right thing to do to try to solve the problem. As for the next error:

error: use of undeclared identifier 'bfd_get_section_name'; did you mean 'bfd_get_section_by_name'?

It looks like the binutils developers ​removed bfd_get_section_name and a lot of other marcros last year. Its replacement is bfd_section_name but it accepts different parameters. The developers of avarice would need to update their software to be compatible with this new binutils, but it doesn't appear that any development of avarice is happening anymore, so I'll work on fixing it.

[ryandesign (Ryan Carsten Schmidt)]

In d4669e26391558c056ff37651b41653c9b5e37ee/macports-ports (master):

avarice: Fix build failure with binutils 2.34

Also fix various other warnings and errors I noticed.

Closes: #60807

[neilt (Neil Tiffin)]

Thanks.