Defining Roadmaps

What are the next steps required until the next MacPorts release(s)?

After a lengty discussion, we identified the following work mode to track base tickets and where they are being released:

• Base tickets are usually created without milestones.
• When closing a ticket when a fix is pushed to master, set the milestone field to the milestone for the next feature release to indicate that is now fixed on master.
• If the fix should be backported to a release branch, set the needs-backport keyword.
• When backporting to a release branch, set the ticket's milestone to the milestone for the next bugfix release.
• If there are milestones missing, file a ticket against the trac component and request them.

This documentation should be moved to the guide #56056.

Release Planning

MacPorts 2.4.3

We identified a need for a bugfix release from the 2.4.x branch, because trace mode is currently broken in 2.4.2 on High Sierra. The ticket for that is #55575. There was an email from Ryan a while ago that requested backporting a number of fixes as well. We created #56018 to track this.

#34619

prevent use of unknown subports

#50469

Git clone fails - SSL certificate problem: Couldn't understand the server certificate format

#52218

make test: Error: no mirror had select-0.1.tar.gz for gcc_select

#55492

move: case-only renames fail when no arguments are given

#55560

Failed to locate 'lbzip2' in path: '/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin' or at its MacPorts configuration time location, did you move it?

#55575

port -vst install fails with "/usr/bin/tar: No such file or directory"

#56018

Backport bugfixes to release-2.4 for next release

MacPorts 2.5.0

There are a number of features that we want to get done before the next major version release. We mostly picked branches with some code that don't need a lot of work to merged into master and simple tickets for this milestone. We did not want to set any far-reached goals for 2.5.0.

#22471

Debugging options for startupitems (launchd / daemondo)

#23677

Deactivating a port should automatically unload daemons

#31798

Installation from binary package does not notify user of need to start launch item

#36560

Use hfsCompression

#36770

Need for a fix regarding mechanism for startupitem handling

#40074

Add macports.conf setting controlling startupitem.autostart

#44295

support more than one launchd plist

#44496

startupitem_install not respected when installing from binary archive

#44497

Change port load to use MacPorts plists directly

#46807

base: allow dots (.) in variant names

#52445

portpatch.tcl: support xz-compressed patchfiles

#53843

warning: 'syscall' is deprecated: first deprecated in macOS 10.12 - syscall(2) is unsupported; please switch to a supported interface

#53857

port -N reclaim does not remove any ports

#54037

port reclaim missing in man page of port

#54743

Binary-only mode requested with no usable archive sites configured

#55282

Lack of Xcode 9 update not detected with High Sierra OS.

#56053

Respect cxx_stdlib and delete_la_files in selection of archive_site

#56326

rev-upgrade considers gcc as broken due to libstdc++

#56434

Inconsistent flag names --nosync and --no-mirror

MacPorts 2.6.0

We identified a number of features that we think should be the next step after 2.5.0 and added them to the 2.6.0 milestone.

#37667

port lint should complain about using only md5 or sha1 checksums

#37867

Weird library install_names for MacPorts dylibs

#44451

Update Installer System Requirements info

#48345

Building for 10.4u SDK on 10.6 uses gcc-4.0 even though building directly on 10.4 uses the newer apple-gcc-4.2

#53851

Add port action that bumps version and checksum

#55139

RFE: Improve Compiler Management Code

#56041

Update compiler selection for 10.6-10.8 with libc++

#56381

It would be nice if shell mode saved command history immediately

#56563

Failed to activate: Cannot restore xattr:com.apple.decmpfs

#57003

port info order of fields is unexpected

#57143

Unable to determine location of a macOS SDK

#57245

Confusing message when attempting to use +universal with the macOS 10.14 SDK

#57457

Travis CI: Sometimes declared dependencies aren't installed

#57717

archive_site_local doesn't work at all

#57718

Unexpected behavior when archive_site_local contains more than 1 URL

#58016

Unnecessary warning about Xcode and xcodebuild when installing port

#58309

NOP port upgrade outdated returns error status

#58914

'bump' action not mentioned in port(1) man page

#59061

2.6.0 rc1 and beta1 packages won't open on SnowLeopard

Base tickets without a milestone

#12048

RFE: Document all the code in the MacPorts base

#20683

port upgrade does nothing with a downgraded package

#23038

Option to automatically clean distfile too

#24687

port command unnecessarily requires permissions to the cwd

#24778

please add mcpu (march is only for x86)

#25182

add a way to exclude build dependencies from pseudo-portname "leaves"

#25970

Variant names should be treated case-insensitively

#26028

Add feature to show changes between port versions

#26853

MacPorts should say why it is (re)installing a dependency

#26918

MacPorts-1.9.1 compiled to XFS NFS files system

#27097

program suggests running 'port xxx' from within the 'port' interactive shell

#27141

Feature request: make minimum UID/GID for adduser addgroup commands configurable

#27353

selfupdate failing, perhaps a user account issue?

#27788

ports should ignore default +universal when universal archs mismatch

#28001

MacPorts base could support out-of-source builds, or tell user that it doesn't

#28640

port lint should warn when *-append should be used

#28738

Hard links fail with Macports on AFS

#29172

remove dependency on Xcode

#30040

Allow case-sensitive build roots

#30067

archives owned by different users

#30328

Enable variants for specific ports in variants.conf

#30562

MacPorts should offer to sign archives

#30622

port should output a message when vacuuming registry

#31056

Locking somewhat broken in MacPorts 2

#31472

pextlib crash/segfault in curl code

#32261

Allow building on a RAM disk or other secondary disk

#32266

pkg: tell us where it was created

#32700

port upgrade -u py25-wxpython fails to deactivate old version

#33037

background archiving

#33396

Create single mpkg of all installed ports

#33491

Save binary packages to user-specified location

#33629

port -e, environment mode

#33930

Ignore consequences of broken DNS servers

#33933

Remove "port -u uninstall" functionality

#34832

PORT/work/.home/.subversion and proxy access

#34931

Add "new" to port command

#35093

mpkg / mdmg requires cleaning and reinstalling every time

#35670

could not set effective gid to 0

#36137

Option to mark a port for installation when the port is fixed

#36612

path:-style dep allows non-macports file inside macports prefix

#36951

Feature Request: Notify me when my local Portfiles shadow upstream Portfiles that have been updated

#37853

RFE: "port provides" should return a different message when used on files provided by base

#38112

RFE: add a "depends_pkg" type of dependency

#38120

RFE: automatically remove .DS_Store files from build directories

#38381

RFE: pseudo-portnames `depof:` and `rdepof:` should be more granular

#38579

RFE: make the aclocal.m4 file in base safe to regenerate with `aclocal`

#38582

RFE: update the configure.ac file in base to silence some warnings produced by autoscan

#38586

atlas @3.10.1_3: log file contents missing when -k option used

#38662

RFE: Replace "command execution failed" with a more informative error message

#38697

mdmg says it's up-to-date when it isn't

#38859

Use dseditgroup in "addgroup"?

#38862

Automatically clean builds with old statefile formats

#39272

`-p` flag for `port` command doesn't play nice with errors resulting from mismatched requested variants vs. originally-selected variants

#39423

Uninstalling replaced port with dependents has to be forced

#39659

configure script does not expand "~" for applications_dir and frameworks_dir

#39782

Add keyword to list compatible graphical environments (X11, Quartz, Wayland)?

#39897

Add 'optional' or 'recommended' metadata tags to portfile spec.

#40035

base aborts if current directory does not exist, even when given a port name

#40042

base should ignore variant conflicts when cleaning

#41339

Add "dependencies" as alias of "deps"

#41796

binary package download ignores macosx_deployment_target set globally

#42731

RFE: Add a conf option to automatically run test phase during normal install process

#43291

more integrated security notification: security page, port selfupdate notice, ...

#43648

mpkg missing daemondo

#43996

port select should record its symlinks in the registry

#44067

use "configure.includes {path1 path2}" instead of "configure.cppflags -I{path1} -I{path2}"

#44413

Use a compiler wrapper script

#44493

Support globs in port versions

#44509

selfupdate tried to tell me to run selfupdate again

#44549

Overriding autoreconf.cmd/autoconf.cmd/automake.cmd should delete default autoreconf.args/autoconf.args/automake.args

#44691

port search: return Trac ticket for submission

#44786

list of dependencies to be installed can be inaccurate

#44894

base: improve livecheck.type moddate

#44900

Installation of Xcode should be better than Homebrew's process

#45274

Run portbuild::build_main once for each build.target

#45674

Misleading logging

#45851

port should scan for DYLIB missing the TWOLEVEL flag

#46139

postflight.in v2.3.1 Error determining network user's shell

#46229

Uninstalling all active ports - are you sure?

#47442

port: new action_environment and/or environment mode

#47706

base: postflight.in: Missing check causes duplicate PATH entries when sourcing CONF_FILE

#48051

Installing a port +universal needlessly reinstalls recursive dependencies +universal

#48423

Replace bzip2 and gzip with pbzip2 and pigz system wide?

#48680

port-lint: Add option to disable parent directories checks

#48983

portconfigure.tcl : fix for building on Linux

#49496

Offer a choice of mirror server in the MacPorts installer package

#49645

`port -n upgrade --force foo` should deactivate after creating the new archive

#50168

selfupdate: rsync fails if http_proxy is configured

#50233

port upgrade --force shouldn't uninstall if no permission was given to install a missing dependency

#50770

In rsync_options, use --delete-delay instead of --delete-after

#51045

"---> Attempting to fetch" doesn't start in a new line

#51183

MacPorts did not install curl's dependency openssl

#51214

Add option to show binary package URLs

#51298

Base does not prevent conflicting port activation when portfile from registry cannot be executed

#51498

requested (meta) ports get uninstalled on uninstall leaves

#51499

Propose --follow-dependents

#51599

main.log is never deleted with "keeplogs yes"

#51684

xcodebuild exists but failed to execute

#51706

platform statement: support an else clause

#52000

Add xz to "base" to allow changing the default compression format to .tar.xz in the future

#52303

`port uninstall --follow-dependents` uninstalls more ports than `port rdependents` reports

#52530

conditional PortGroup include

#52575

Report Xcode version and other useful information in main.log

#52713

splitting up ports in "runtime" and "-dev" ports, DebUntu style (PoC)

#52767

port lint should warn when modeline is missing

#52873

port sync should open only a single rsync connection

#52898

revision convenience

#52911

rev-upgrade -v should be more verbose about missing architecture

#52952

Ability to list just emails or just GitHub usernames of maintainers

#52973

add setting to allow main.log truncation

#52981

Print custom warnings from Portfile with `port info`

#53089

option-contains

#53387

Pextlib/xinstall : don't ignore directory chmod errors silently

#53404

`port upgrade outdated` changes colours in terminal emulation

#53411

macports-base codesigning ?

#53730

copy, delete, move, touch: support -W argument for changing working directory

#54366

2 variant convenience procedures

#54386

variants set with default_variant don't propagate the same way as variants set by the user do.

#54697

`port history` action

#55089

Make "port requested" an alias for "port installed requested"

#55332

chown does not support changing group

#55508

autorequested (mark some unrequested leaves as requested)

#55514

Add semantic versioning support to livecheck

#55546

Install dependencies without asking

#55637

allow port reactivation (WIP)

#55827

sandbox-exec: execvp() of 'sh' failed: No such file or directory

#56016

make test uses the installed version of MacPorts, not the just-built one

#56040

Move some checks out of lint --nitpick

#56134

shortcut to combine selfupdate and upgrade outdated

#56201

make dist requires DISTVER to be specified

#56204

Remove prefix string from darwintrace.dylib and Pextlib.dylib

#56245

rev-upgrade: Handling missing architectures on libraries

#56295

Correctly represent 64-bit platform as x86_64 in ${os.arch} and pre-generated PortIndex

#56345

Make it easier to determine which ports have lint problems

#56365

Create test to verify correct functioning of ptys in system call

#56437

rev-upgrade ignores -p

#56457

use_dmg: /usr/bin/cpio: illegal option -- 0

#56619

I ran "sudo port selfupdate" and now I cannot install any ports without an error

#56756

Build doesn't honor --bindir, --libexecdir, etc.

#56757

reclaim removed my ports without asking

#56957

attempt to create ccachedir conditionally

#56963

New keywords for bash/zsh tab-completion

#57011

New keyword for man page/documentation installation

#57099

[feature request] "replaces" keyword

#57160

MacPorts base readline support is not compatible with MacPorts readline port

#57391

port log, port logfile, and port work don't accept subport

#57653

install/upgrade feedback suggestion

#57690

Warning when disabling default archive_sites

#57695

Set AR, NM and RANLIB env. variables

#57730

registry.db files table should have unique constraint over id and path columns

#57950

port selfupdate gives the impression of doing work in the wrong order

#58229

base: defining the same variant both in a PG and a port discards description

#58497

Don't check os_major on Linux

#58529

Port command, in interactive mode, doesn't load the editline config file

#58575

Small error - Forcing uninstall uses wrong jargon

#58597

When MacPorts asks a yes/no question, add an abort option

#58656

Show URL in "port info"

#58663

Unsigned files will not run at all in future versions of macOS

#58751

MacPorts should bundle a newer rsync or allow overriding the default rsync

#58785

If port select fails, it can leave an incomplete or inconsistent set of symlinks

#58858

[base]: default_variants could check variant conflicts

#59055

port bump suggestions

#59283

xinstall: Prevent the creation of pathless directories that looks like octal permission numbers, like 755

#59381

Do something better when no ports are specified

#59463

Binary-only mode requested with no usable archive sites configured

#59691

After a time, MacPorts cannot determine the Xcode version, on Snow Leopard

#59696

Use MacPorts git or svn if available when fetch.type is git or svn

#59836

port should explicitly say to use sudo when upgrading

#60075

Error in Scanning binaries for linking errors

#60256

'port bump' does not update checksums for cargo crates

#60269

port archive should be smarter with regards to portarchivetype

#60431

base: (linux) fails to determine build arch correctly

#60432

base: (linux) arch flags are not recognized by linux compilers

#60433

base: (linux) cxx_stdlib is not derived by base

#60473

[wishlist] -u: allow not to uninstall all inactive versions

#60534

Print status information for a daemon

#60676

Install from source --with-no-root-privileges fails on Catalina - 'couldn't create error file for command: permission denied'

#60722

DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH doesn't work in <command>.env

#60749

Activation fails if a port tries to install ._ files

#60754

Reclaim removes build dependencies

#60756

Tell the user when fetching a binary failed and a build from source will occur

#60757

Print already completed phases

#60786

Build progress bar does not account for muniversal variant

#60818

darwintrace cannot inject into binaries of a different architecture (missing arm64e)

#60844

Make the reinplace warning an error

#61050

Add `port vercmp` command

#61191

port deactivate fails, mentions nonexistent logfile

#61233

port command hangs under tracemode

#61288

graphviz, graphviz-devel: manpage symlink to symlink doesn't get recreated to compressed version

#61315

Distfile fetch for python39 hangs on 10.5

#61320

MacPorts-2.6.3-10.15-Catalina.pkg installer error

#61390

compiler.openmp_version doesn't set configure.ldflags -L${prefix}/lib/libomp -lomp with port groups cmake+python

#62143

Make master_site_local and patch_site_local able to be suffixed with dist_subdir

#62144

base: On Mountain Lion configuration file is processed but it ignores archives server URL

#62345

Not prompted to agree to xcode license when circular dependencies exist due to that very problem

#62382

port mpkg iperf3 fails to create work/destroot/ directories

#62457

port lint: warn if there is no test phase

#62590

port lint: warn if missing 'revision' field

#62688

Increase minimum C11 compatible compiler

#62715

Add the supported_archs field to port info

#63092

Allow ports to install for x86_64 on arm64 if a dependency requires that

#63130

port diagnose: check for broken SDKs and missing SDK receipts

#63139

Prefer MacOSX11.sdk if available else prefer newest MacOSX11.*.sdk

#63217

Makefile and installer postflight script should remove incorrect DISPLAY environment variable left in shell startup script by MacPorts 2.6.4 installation on Big Sur

#63272

zsh: killed port upg outdated in Big Sur

#63359

Trace mode causes anything piped to sed from within csh to output the sed executable

#63451

`port search --variant` doesn't find all matching ports

#63589

base: port select blindly overwrites pre-existing binaries, without warning

#63647

detect when user has not opened Xcode to perform installation of additional components

#63656

Compiling MacPorts for installation in home directory on Catalina fails at "make install" with: make: *** [install] Killed: 9

#63885

Replace rmd160 use in MacPorts with something else

#64017

add a way to get rdeps of an installed version of a port

#64050

sync over git: rebase with autostash only if fast-forwarding fails

#64061

perl: posix_spawn: ${prefix}/var/macports/sip-workaround/502/usr/bin/perl5.xx: No such file or directory

#64235

MacPorts base: patch_sites.mirror_subdir not getting appended to patch_sites URL

#64297

Allow "." as synonym for current port directory

#64369

Add livecheck.user_agent

#64389

curl_multi_info_read() returned {.msg = CURLMSG_DONE, .data.result = 3 (!= CURLE_OK)}, but the error buffer is not set. curl_easy_strerror(.data.result): URL using bad/illegal format or missing URL

#64390

Possible to build ports on 10.6.8 as universal (x86_64 + ppc64) after restoring PPC assembler?

#64702

Unable to interrupt curl call in proc _archive_available

#64960

use_7z, use_bzip2, use_lzip, use_lzma, use_tar, use_xz, use_zip cannot be undone

#65264

sqlite error: no such column: cxx_stdlib (1) while executing query

#65316

Launch port selfupdate automatically

#65920

tcllib fails to destroot with a signed in-tree tclsh

#66053

installing base with ./configure --with-universal-archs="CPU" doesn't actually set the universal_archs in macports.conf

#66067

enabling git fsmonitor causes base to hang on git operations

#66120

`port selfupdate` fails when updating a local ports tree using `/usr/bin/git`

#66214

port sets echo for stty in at least one case

#66358

sip-workaround / trace mode no longer works on arm64 macOS ≥ 13 due to new security features

#66485

While I am installing port 1 I cannot build port 2

#66499

Significantly reduce MacPorts base install size by removing base.tar and compressing ports.tar

#66507

Allow customizing applications_dir on a per-port basis

#66510

Uninstall warning: add portname to warning prompt. Makes it more clear which port is triggering the warning if multiple ports are specified on the uninstall line.

#66537

Add a field to port information that specifies whether that port is distributed as a binary or requires a lengthy rebuild

#66538

Allow suppressing 'Warning: couldn't find file'

#66626

Installation of Ventura package fails

#66724

Mac OS Ventura Update asks for MacPorts password, password unknown

#66752

The installer encountered an error that caused the installation to fail

#66856

port 2.8.1 and tcsh do not interact correctly on Monterey

#66871

Installation on Leopard broken? Error: The installed version of Xcode (3.1.4) is too old to use on the installed OS version. Version 14.2 or late is recommended

#66878

Crowdstrike (security scanner) freaks out when the package installer runs

#67044

Registry DB is 1.2GB and makes a 10.4.11 system unusable

#67272

Port selfupdate is NOT working on macOS Catalina version 10.15.7

#67402

Can't build MacPorts on 10.11 with Xcode 8.2.1

#67456

sudo: port: command not found

#67534

port rev-upgrade --id-loadcmd-check fails on MacPorts 2.8.1

#67703

gd license should not be marked as conflicting with GPL

#67787

Detect other possible default -Werror compiler errors during configure

#67788

Refuse to run if install_name_tool is broken

#68136

cross-platform portfiles and shlib extension

#68401

Sandboxing in Macports does not work correctly on 10.6.x: sh: /bin/ps: Operation not permitted

#68637

Trace mode considers dependencies case-sensitively

#68742

Build does not respect CONFIG_SITE

#68820

Upgrading specific port ignores epoch

#68902

inconsistent use of c++ library for mpich with gcc10>

#68953

port(1) manpage: better explain behavior of -N flag (regarding interactivity)

#69055

port: non-root local port build hardcodes rsync path

#69187

Updated from version 2.8.1 to 2.9 Crowdstrike altert from IT

#69190

base prohibits new Clangs on 10.6 Intel

#69240

Launch item "Joshua Root" created on installation without explanation

#69255

Base should rather use ppc+ppc64 on Leopard with PowerPC cpu, not ppc+i386

#69301

macports 2.9.1 appears to be broken on Rosetta: tclsh8.6(1491,0xb03a7000) malloc: *** error for object 0x600940: pointer being freed was not allocated

#69353

Macports base configure sets universal archs to arm64 x86_64 on powerpc-*-openbsd (i.e. both cpu and OS are 32-bit)

#69354

Macports on BSD compiles libsqlite3400.so, but looks to link against libsqlite3.40.0.so

#69379

storing port configuration settings under the workdir

#69400

Port problem reporting mechanism "port report <portname>"

#69404

shouldn't xz-bootstrap usage be controlled through "base"?

#69412

Thought bubble from my LTO PortGroup

#69534

Trace mode does not fully hide python modules

#69662

port diagnose checks for Homebrew in /usr/local but not /opt/homebrew

#69781

portindex: multi-threading appears bottlenecked for 10.13, 10.12, and perhaps earlier

#69839

Handle CC_FOR_BUILD and CXX_FOR_BUILD where they are used but not actually set

#69848

port (r)deps --no-test option is not documented

#69854

`port` instructs users to start LaunchAgents with `sudo port load`

#69866

Built-in tests should not run pre-test and post-test blocks

#69868

Don't depend on www.whatsmyip.org in test suite

#69895

base does not handle dependencies correctly from tests variant

#70016

destroot phase does not confine process to destroot directory

#70054

port echo adds whitespace after port names

#70077

The stub PG should (be able to) clear all pre- and post- blocks

#70182

MacPorts 2.9.3 (base): Xcode 15.X causes issues with some OCaml software (segfaults), but MacPorts does not allow Xcode 14.X on Sonoma

#70183

installable form(s) of port:MacPorts

#70232

Many, maybe all, binaries generating "code object is not signed at all" -67062 errors in Console

#70240

port lint should warn if platforms contains any but supported_archs is not set

#70472

'port fetch outdated' upgrades ports

#70511

sqlite error: attempt to write a readonly database after 2.10.0 update

#70539

base: failure for building some ports (depending on conditions) when Macports is installed at deeper directory hierarchy with "--prefix" option

#70556

"base" seemingly locking up for sometimes very long

#70557

base 2.10.0 should do `portindex` for all local repos during `port migrate`

#70633

Add an option for `port reclaim` to clean up old log files

#70674

MacPorts Sync: Sync fails with error - Error: process_cmd failed: sqlite error: another row available

#70917

port migrate/restore enhancement request

#70922

Uninstall range selections are broken

#70938

macports-base does change the default users home path in some cases

#70945

All code needs to be signed as of macOS 15

#70997

Warning: Unnecessary platforms line as darwin is the default

#71051

Macports should add a global "use_xcode yes" config option

#71089

Undefined curl symbols

#71307

`portindex` is very slow on PPC macOS 10.4

#71342

Fail in a more informative way when required C++ standard is unsupported than `Invalid value for configure.compiler`