Default compiler Macports

Question

Not sure if this is the correct place for this kind of question. If not, please point me in the right direction.

I'm using OSX 10.5.8 on a white 13" macbook with Xcode 3.1.4. When installing py27-bottleneck through macports, I get the following error

--->  Building py27-bottleneck
running build
running build_py
package init file 'bottleneck/tests/__init__.py' not found (or not a regular file)
package init file 'bottleneck/src/func/__init__.py' not found (or not a regular file)
package init file 'bottleneck/src/move/__init__.py' not found (or not a regular file)
package init file 'bottleneck/tests/__init__.py' not found (or not a regular file)
package init file 'bottleneck/src/func/__init__.py' not found (or not a regular file)
package init file 'bottleneck/src/move/__init__.py' not found (or not a regular file)
running build_ext
building 'func' extension
/usr/bin/gcc-4.2 -DNDEBUG -g -fwrapv -O3 -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -arch i386 -I/opt/local/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/numpy/core/include -I/opt/local/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/include/python2.7 -c bottleneck/src/func/func.c -o build/temp.macosx-10.5-i386-2.7/bottleneck/src/func/func.o
In file included from /opt/local/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/numpy/core/include/numpy/ndarraytypes.h:1760,
             from /opt/local/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/numpy/core/include/numpy/ndarrayobject.h:17,
             from /opt/local/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/numpy/core/include/numpy/arrayobject.h:4,
             from bottleneck/src/func/func.c:314:
/opt/local/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/numpy/core/include/numpy/npy_1_7_deprecated_api.h:15:2: warning: #warning "Using deprecated NumPy API, disable it by " "#defining NPY_NO_DEPRECATED_API NPY_1_7_API_VERSION"
/opt/local/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/numpy/core/include/numpy/__ufunc_api.h:242: warning: ?_import_umath? defined but not used
cc1(53864) malloc: *** mmap(size=298745856) failed (error code=12)
*** error: can't allocate region
*** set a breakpoint in malloc_error_break to debug

cc1: out of memory allocating 298742336 bytes after a total of 0 bytes
error: command '/usr/bin/gcc-4.2' failed with exit status 1
Command failed:  cd "/opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_release_ports_python_py-bottleneck/py27-bottleneck/work/Bottleneck-0.8.0" && /opt/local/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/bin/python2.7 setup.py --no-user-cfg build 
Exit code: 1
Error: org.macports.build for port py27-bottleneck returned: command execution failed
Warning: targets not executed for py27-bottleneck: org.macports.activate org.macports.build org.macports.destroot org.macports.install
Please see the log file for port py27-bottleneck for details:
/opt/local/var/macports/logs/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_release_ports_python_py-bottleneck/py27-bottleneck/main.log
Error: Problem while installing py27-bottleneck

I don't really know what the problem is and why this had happened, but what I noticed was that macports is still using an old compiler.

So does anybody know how I can fix this problem?

Also, why is macports still using gcc-4.2, while I have all my symlinks pointing at /opt/local/bin/gcc-mp-4.8. I remember having this problem earlier with installing some other python packages (or maybe it was this one, I don't remember), so I forced macports to use the newer compiler by changing the makefile and it worked temporarily. Until I started upgrading my outdated ports. Obviously now macports encountered linking errors and just reinstalled the all those packages (this is where I am now). So why does macports not just use the newer compiler? Or how can I make him do this? (maybe I shouldn't?)

Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

Answer 1

On 10.5.8 with Xcode 3.1.4 MacPorts uses the following compilers (in-order, unless blacklisted by ports because known to break):

1. GCC 4.2 from /usr/bin
2. A MacPorts build of the same compiler (with a few minor bugfixes)
3. GCC 4.0 from /usr/bin
4. Clang 3.3 from MacPorts

It seems this port should be blacklisting GCC 4.2 (and probably 2. and 3., too). You could file that as a bug, but to be honest, support for 10.5 is only given on a best-effort basis because most maintainers can't test on this platform anymore, so that's probably not getting you anywhere unless you provide a patch with your report.

You could override the compiler from command line like you did before. To stop rev-upgrade from immediately starting rebuilds, you can set revupgrade_mode report in your macports.conf. I'd have to see the output of port -dy rev-upgrade when it encounters broken ports to know why it produces broken binaries.

It has already been mentioned that the select mechanism doesn't affect which compilers MacPorts chooses for its ports (because depending on what's selected by the user would add another variable that might make builds unreproducible, which is something we're trying to avoid). MacPorts' default compilers can be changed, but doing so is completely unsupported and deliberately undocumented. That being said, if you still want to attempt this, https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/118550/define-local-keyword-globally-in-a-macports-config/122997#122997 has some info on how to do that.