libopenshot-audio @0.2.1 fails to build on <= 10.10: "The 10.11 SDK (Xcode 7.3.1+) is required to build JUCE apps"

[Rezzy-dev (Rezzy)]

--->  Fetching archive for libopenshot-audio
--->  Attempting to fetch libopenshot-audio-0.2.1_0.darwin_14.x86_64.tbz2 from http://packages.macports.org/libopenshot-audio
--->  Attempting to fetch libopenshot-audio-0.2.1_0.darwin_14.x86_64.tbz2 from http://jog.id.packages.macports.org/macports/packages/libopenshot-audio
--->  Attempting to fetch libopenshot-audio-0.2.1_0.darwin_14.x86_64.tbz2 from http://pek.cn.packages.macports.org/macports/packages/libopenshot-audio
--->  Building libopenshot-audio
Error: Failed to build libopenshot-audio: command execution failed
Error: See /opt/local/var/macports/logs/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_macports_release_tarballs_ports_multimedia_libopenshot-audio/libopenshot-audio/main.log for details.
Error: Follow https://guide.macports.org/#project.tickets if you believe there
is a bug.
Error: Processing of port openshot-qt failed

There seems to be a script error in the build process. Log attached.

[ctreleaven (Craig Treleaven)]

I see that Openshot 3.0 was released yesterday. I will have a look at updating to that but I would not expect it to better support old versions of OSX.

[Rezzy-dev (Rezzy)]

I've just gone through all the Mac builds of Openshot on the official site, and 2.3.3 seems to be the last version to run on Mac OS 10.10 (Yosemite). Anything after that seems to bug out one way or another, even in the official builds. I suggest packaging/offering the 2.3.3 build for Yosemite (and whatever version of libopenshot-audio it is using).

​https://github.com/OpenShot/openshot-qt/releases/download/v2.3.3/OpenShot-v2.3.3-x86_64.dmg

Openshot seems to be very finicky about which version of the program runs with which release of OS X.

[ctreleaven (Craig Treleaven)]

There are only 2 reported users of OpenShot according to our user statistics...and I'm one! I won't be putting a lot of effort into supporting old OSX versions. Especially when a dmg can be downloaded from upstream. Sorry.

[ctreleaven (Craig Treleaven)]

I have attempted to update OpenShot to version 3.0.0 but it fails to launch. I've reported upstream:

​https://github.com/OpenShot/openshot-qt/issues/5039

I've spent several hours trying to track down the problem but my almost complete lack of experience with Python is a handicap. Hopefully upstream won't ignore me like they did last year.

[Rezzy-dev (Rezzy)]

Thanks for the effort, Craig, I really appreciate it. And I understand why this is frustrating.

I think Catalina may be too old for the 3.0.0 release of Openshot. I would try an earlier release for Catalina: a version after 2.3.3.

That error seems like it's not finding the Python libraries -- which could be due to a Python version mismatch.

As for the user statistic on this site, I don't believe they are an accurate representation about the number of active users. For one, that second person is not me: so there's already 3 of us! Not all users bother to sign up to the bug report system or even know how to, and so many users opt out of monitoring these days (because online companies/corporations have been abusing their surveillance and data-hoarding powers/abilities).

So I am certain that there are way more than 3 active users of Openshot on MacPorts. And there would be even more if the port worked reliably (which is tricky, because Openshot itself doesn't work reliably across OS X versions -- each version of Openshot is specifically tied to a Mac OS version, it seems, without that being clearly documented anywhere).

I am curious, though, as to why MacPorts doesn't offer the native Mac app bundle/download for a package if it is officially available (such as in the case of Openshot here). It should at least notify the user that a native Mac version/alternative of the app is available. It would be a nice feature to have.

[ctreleaven (Craig Treleaven)]

I haven't tested, but I think the problem with the upstream packaged application may be due to the Qt version. Each Qt version is only (officially) supported on a couple of macOS releases. So the bundled version of Qt may be the limiting factor.

An advantage of MacPorts is that our Qt portgroup goes through some gymnastics to match the Qt version to the macOS version. That _should_ help us to support the app on older OS releases for longer. Nonetheless, one of the Openshot libraries relies on features that were introduced in OSX 10.9 so that's the earliest that can possibly run it.

I do understand that our opt-in statistics are incomplete. Still not a big user base.

Re distributing upstream dmg's via MacPorts, I can't speak for the project as a whole. However, my view is that we're not adding much value by doing so. Packaging OpenShot, for instance, the way we do means that the application can benefit from updates to any of the components earlier rather than waiting for upstream to issue a new release. That has the downside that sometimes dependency updates cause things to break. In general, however, I think the benefits outweigh the potential risk.

Homebrew has many more packages that just deliver the upstream dmg. OTOH, they really only support current OS releases.

Different philosophies, neither one is "right".