Server-generated portindexes are corrupt or empty

[mouse07410 (Mouse)]

macOS Catalina 10.15.7, Xcode-12.2. Just did a successful sudo port self update, which installed Macports-2.6.4.

From that moment, I'm getting a ton of complaints like

$ port installed libiconv
The following ports are currently installed:
  libiconv @1.16_1 (active)
$ port info libiconv
Error: Port libiconv not found

Here's a longer sample:

Warning: No port libiconv found in the index.
Warning: No port libiconv found in the index.
Warning: No port xorg-libsm found in the index.
Warning: No port xorg-libX11 found in the index.
Warning: No port fftw-3 found in the index.
Warning: No port freetype found in the index.
Warning: No port expat found in the index.
Warning: No port freetype found in the index.
Warning: No port libiconv found in the index.
Warning: No port ghostscript found in the index.
Warning: No port libiconv found in the index.
Warning: No port expat found in the index.
Warning: No port libxml2 found in the index.
Warning: No port libheif found in the index.
Warning: No port freetype found in the index.
Warning: No port expat found in the index.
Warning: No port freetype found in the index.
Warning: No port libiconv found in the index.
Warning: No port xpm found in the index.
Warning: No port gts found in the index.
Warning: No port pango found in the index.
Warning: No port libLASi found in the index.
Warning: No port xorg-libXaw found in the index.
Warning: No port urw-fonts found in the index.
Warning: No port libiconv found in the index.
Warning: No port freetype found in the index.
Warning: No port expat found in the index.
Warning: No port xrender found in the index.
Warning: No port xorg-libXext found in the index.
Warning: No port xorg-xcb-util found in the index.
Warning: No port pango found in the index.
Warning: No port py38-mako found in the index.
Warning: No port py38-markdown found in the index.
Warning: No port libxml2 found in the index.
Warning: No port xorg-libX11 found in the index.
Warning: No port libxml2 found in the index.
Warning: No port expat found in the index.
Warning: No port python_select found in the index.
Warning: No port python3_select found in the index.
Warning: No port freetype found in the index.
Warning: No port expat found in the index.
Warning: No port xorg-libX11 found in the index.
Warning: No port xorg-libXext found in the index.
Warning: No port xorg-libXt found in the index.
Warning: No port urw-fonts found in the index.
--->  Computing dependencies for ImageMagick
--->  Fetching archive for ImageMagick

[ryandesign (Ryan Carsten Schmidt)]

There is something wrong with the master server; see #61500. That server also generates the portindexes; apparently it is generating them wrong. I am hopeful that after restarting the server it will behave itself again.

[ryandesign (Ryan Carsten Schmidt)]

The mprsyncup process on the server appears to be regenerating complete new portindexes for at least some OS versions right now, which is unexpected. Usually it just updates the existing portindexes. After restarting the server I plan to delete the portindexes and the git clones used to create them and generate them all fresh just to be sure.

[mouse07410 (Mouse)]

Sure, no problem. Thanks.

When do you recommend me to try again? Tomorrow? Or give it more time?

[ryandesign (Ryan Carsten Schmidt)]

Hopefully I can get things working by later today but I'll of course post progress updates in this ticket. Once the server is restarted and working correctly, regenerating all the portindexes will probably take an hour or two, then up to another hour before the public server syncs it and makes it available.

[ryandesign (Ryan Carsten Schmidt)]

Server is restarted and is generating new portindexes.

[ryandesign (Ryan Carsten Schmidt)]

Fresh portindexes have been generated and should appear on the public server within the hour.

The JSON versions, used by the ports web site, will be delayed by a further hour due to #61514.

[mouse07410 (Mouse)]

Server is restarted and is generating new portindexes.

I think the problem I reported, has been fixed. Thanks!

[JDLH (Jim DeLaHunt)]

I experienced this problem on 16 November. I asked on the macports-users list (see ​https://lists.macports.org/pipermail/macports-users/2020-November/048993.html) and Ryan was kind enough to explain and point to this ticket. I too can confirm that the problem disappeared for me when I did a port selfupdate on 17 November.