fetchmail-devel build is broken on macOS 11 and 12

[steven-michaud (Steven Michaud)]

The error is:

:info:destroot PermissionError: [Errno 1] Operation not permitted: '/var/root/Library/Caches/com.apple.python'

It happens while the following command is being run to "compile" fetchmailconf.py, as a side effect of running /usr/bin/install on it:

"/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/Library/Frameworks/Python3.framework/Versions/3.8/lib/python3.8/py_compile.py"

This seems to be some kind of sandbox error. Something similar is reported here: ​https://issueexplorer.com/issue/matplotlib/matplotlib/21075:

SystemExit: error: SandboxViolation: mkdir('/private/var/root/Library/Caches/com.apple.python/private/tmp/easy_install-e7dh_pwp', 511) {}

The breakage happens because fetchmail-devel's own installer (configure/make) runs Apple's python3 instead of the MacPorts one, even when the MacPorts one is installed and in the PATH.

I've got a fix for this. I'll post it after a bit more testing.

​https://ports.macports.org/port/fetchmail-devel/details/

[steven-michaud (Steven Michaud)]

Here's a fix that works. I tested it on both macOS 11 and macOS 12, on Intel hardware and Apple Silicon hardware.

I'm not at all experienced with portfiles, and it seems a bit clumsy. I won't be surprised if someone else can neaten it up and pare it down.

[steven-michaud (Steven Michaud)]

Provisional fix

[steven-michaud (Steven Michaud)]

I just made a minor change to my fix -- I took python out of the depends_lib line and added it to its own depends_build line.

That makes better sense. I tested it again and it still works.

[steven-michaud (Steven Michaud)]

Note that what I installed was the default for fetchmail-devel:

fetchmail-devel @6.5.0.beta5_1+ssl

I did *not* specify the fetchmailconf variant. But fetchmail's own installer still installed fetchmailconf.py and "compiled" it.

[steven-michaud (Steven Michaud)]

No errors happen installing the fetchmail port on macOS 11 and macOS 12 (with the original portfile). So presumably my patch will need to be altered to effect only the fetchmail-devel subport.

Also, the same sandbox error happens (as reported in my initial comment) when I specify the +fetchmailconf variant for fetchmail-devel.

[steven-michaud (Steven Michaud)]

Changes to fetchmail portfile for a local port of fetchmail-devel

[steven-michaud (Steven Michaud)]

I've gotten tired of waiting for MacPorts to fix this. So I followed the instructions at ​https://trac.macports.org/wiki/howto/PatchLocal to create a local port of fetchmail-devel, to override the broken one on the MacPorts servers. I incorporated my fix for this bug, plus changes to the portfile to download the latest fetchmail 6.5.0 beta (beta7). MacPorts' fetchmail-devel is still at beta5.

Note that master_sites line has always been wrong, so the existing portfile can't download anything from the Sourceforge mirrors. Sourceforge doesn't have a "fetchmail-devel" -- only different branches of "fetchmail".

[pmetzger (Perry E. Metzger)]

Just FYI, patchfiles to Trac don't really get paid attention to any more. If you want to get something fixed, a pull request on Github is generally now the right thing.

[steven-michaud (Steven Michaud)]

Thanks for the info. I'll get to it at some point. In the meantime I'm happily using my local port.