Unable to install Meld by MacPorts

Question

I found that other people too have had trouble in installing Meld to Mac by MacPorts.

I run

sudo port install meld 

I get

sudo port install meld  
 --->  Activating shared-mime-info @0.60_0
Error: Target org.macports.activate returned: Image error: /opt/local/bin/update-mime-database already exists and does not belong to a registered port.  Unable to activate port shared-mime-info.
Error: The following dependencies failed to build: py25-gnome gconf gtk2 shared-mime-info orbit2 libidl gnome-vfs desktop-file-utils gnome-mime-data libbonobo libbonoboui libglade2 libgnome esound audiofile libgnomecanvas libart_lgpl libgnomeui gnome-icon-theme hicolor-icon-theme icon-naming-utils p5-xml-simple p5-xml-namespacesupport p5-xml-sax gnome-keyring libtasn1 py25-gtk py25-cairo py25-numpy py25-nose py25-gobject py25-orbit
Error: Status 1 encountered during processing. 

How can you install Meld to Mac?

Answer 1

Installing meld on OS X 10.10. For added difficulty, must use OS X's quartz display server (rather than X11 display server):

$ sudo port install python27
$ sudo port select --set python python27
$ sudo port install rarian
$ sudo port install pango +no_x11
$ sudo port install gtk2 +quartz
$ sudo port install py27-pygtk +quartz
$ sudo port uninstall --follow-dependents gtk3
$ sudo port install gtk3
$ sudo port uninstall py27-pygtksourceview
$ sudo port install py27-pygtksourceview +quartz
$ sudo port install gnome-desktop
$ sudo port install meld +quartz

$ sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.freedesktop.dbus-system.plist
$ sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchAgents/org.freedesktop.dbus-session.plist

<reboot system...>

$ meld

Wow, it works!

Answer 2

I found that MacPorts worked to install meld, but it didn't work straight away as advertised.

After running and installing all the dependencies, it failed, and gave a cryptic log message similar to the one in this question (but not identical).

After a bit of digging around I found I had to do the following:

Make sure I had properly agreed to the license for XCode

xcodebuild -license

Install the Xcode command line tools

xcode-select --install

Install rarian (it seems to be a dependency that MacPorts failed to recognize)

sudo port install rarian

The latter instructions come from here: http://www.codez.co.uk/2014/02/meld-on-mac-osx-mavericks-10-9/ and this was the last step before I was able to get it working.

Answer 3

As rspeed said, you probably had a bad install or upgrade that created that file. Alternately, you installed something outside of macports into the /opt/local tree (though I'm not sure how you would have ended up doing that). I recommend just doing a force activate of the shared-mime-info port, then trying to reinstall meld.

sudo port activate -f shared-mime-info
sudo port install meld

Answer 4

Somehow that file already exists, probably from a bad uninstall or upgrade.

If you force the install it probably won't break anything.

sudo port install --force meld