xfig cannot export subset of layers

[bdmckay]

Macbook Pro, Sonoma 14.1.1, macports 2.8.1, xfig @3.2.9_0, fig2dev @3.2.9_0

Create a figure with items on layers 50,51. It doesn't matter what items; I used circles. Save.

Deselect layer 51 (leaving only layer 50 active). Export->Export only active->Export.

Now a popup says:

Error message from spawned process: fig2dev: help for -D option:
-D +rangelist  means keep only depths in rangelist.
-D -rangelist  means keep all depths but those in rangelist.
Rangelist can be a list of numbers or ranges of numbers, e.g.:
   10,40,55,60:70,99

By intercepting the fig2dev command, I see that the arguments have an additional "-D":

-L eps -D -D -51 -F -n testing.fig

The following command works fine on the command line:

fig2dev -L eps -D -51 -F -n testing.fig testing.eps

[bdmckay]

The problem is in file u_print.c. The procedure build_layer_list() constructs the layers argument including an initial "-D". The result is passed to start_argumentlist() which adds an extra "-D".

[ryandesign (Ryan Carsten Schmidt)]

It sounds like the problem is not specific to MacPorts. Please ​report it to the developers of xfig so that they can fix it and release a fixed version, to which MacPorts can then update.