Category: 2004 US Election

I have been having some issues with darwinports, the open source package/port management system for Darwin/OS X. I am more familiar with the FreeBSD ports system and have worked out some coping strategies for when things don’t go well (thankfully, it doesn’t happen often).

So I had a port get stuck in such way that it built and was usable (the .so or .dylib files were installed) but the port wasn’t registered. That means that ports depending on it would break since they couldn’t install without it.

Here’s an example of what I was seeing:

—> Installing gettext 0.14.1_1

Error: Target com.apple.install returned: Registry error: gettext 0.14.1_1 already registered as installed. Please uninstall it first.

Warning: the following items did not execute (for gettext): com.apple.activate com.apple.install

white:/opt/local paul$ port -vf uninstall gettext

port uninstall failed: Registry error: gettext 0.14.1_0 not registered as installed.

white:/opt/local paul$ port -vf install gettext

—> Installing gettext 0.14.1_1

Error: Target com.apple.install returned: Registry error: gettext 0.14.1_1 already registered as installed. Please uninstall it first.

Warning: the following items did not execute (for gettext): com.apple.activate com.apple.install

white:/opt/local paul$ port -vf activate gettext

—> Activating gettext

port activate failed: Registry error: gettext 0.14.1_0 not registered as installed.

I had to find a little more about how the registration process works.

As it turns out, in /opt/local/var/db/dports is where all the action is.

Do you have any favorite children’s gifts your children have received or been given? Any timeless ideas you’d like to share?

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Thanks!

well, it didn’t take long to find the information I wanted. How read this chart:

1. find your state
2. see if it’s red or blue (you probably know)
3. check to see if the final column is a positive or negative number.

If it’s a negative number, you lose: you’re giving away more than your get, in California’s case, $58 billion. But if you’re in Alabama, say, you win: you collected $10 billion more than you contributed. And hey, look at Virginia with almost $22 billion in federal funds: you’d think one of the oldest states would have figured out how to generate a surplus by now.

Unfair? Perhaps. The federal system is supposed to benefit everyone without quibbling about who generates a surplus or a deficit. But the divisions aren’t my invention: again, if people can speak for the president and his party and deprecate the ones who generate the tax revenues that subsidize their base without fear of correction, why should we put up with it?