Question

I am looking for a way to do make install in ports folders on FreeBSD 6.3 for various ports packages.

I am trying to install m4 using ports however I am getting this error.

[root@SM2-BSD /usr/ports/devel/m4]# make install
"Makefile", line 38: Malformed conditional (${PORT_OPTIONS:MLIBSIGSEGV})
"Makefile", line 41: if-less else
"Makefile", line 43: if-less endif
make: fatal errors encountered -- cannot continue

This is happening after I did a

portsnap fetch extract update

I am getting similar errors in emacs port as well while doing make install.

[root@SM2-BSD /usr/ports/editors/emacs]# make install
"Makefile", line 83: Malformed conditional (${PORT_OPTIONS:MCANNA})
"Makefile", line 92: if-less endif
"Makefile", line 100: Malformed conditional (${PORT_OPTIONS:MSVG})
"Makefile", line 106: Malformed conditional (${PORT_OPTIONS:MGTK2})
"Makefile", line 109: if-less elif
"Makefile", line 112: if-less elif
"Makefile", line 115: if-less elif
"Makefile", line 118: if-less elif
"Makefile", line 121: if-less endif
"Makefile", line 123: Malformed conditional (!${PORT_OPTIONS:MSCROLLBARS})
"Makefile", line 125: if-less endif
"Makefile", line 127: Malformed conditional (!${PORT_OPTIONS:MSYNC_INPUT})
"Makefile", line 129: if-less endif
"Makefile", line 131: Malformed conditional (${PORT_OPTIONS:MJPEG})
"Makefile", line 133: if-less else
"Makefile", line 135: if-less endif
"Makefile", line 137: Malformed conditional (${PORT_OPTIONS:MTIFF})
"Makefile", line 139: if-less else
"Makefile", line 141: if-less endif
"Makefile", line 143: Malformed conditional (${PORT_OPTIONS:MGIF})
"Makefile", line 145: if-less else
"Makefile", line 147: if-less endif
"Makefile", line 149: Malformed conditional (${PORT_OPTIONS:MPNG})
"Makefile", line 151: if-less else
"Makefile", line 153: if-less endif
"Makefile", line 155: Malformed conditional (${PORT_OPTIONS:MXPM})
"Makefile", line 157: if-less else
"Makefile", line 159: if-less endif
"Makefile", line 161: Malformed conditional (${PORT_OPTIONS:MXFT})
"Makefile", line 165: Malformed conditional (${PORT_OPTIONS:MM17N})
"Makefile", line 168: if-less else
"Makefile", line 170: if-less endif
"Makefile", line 171: Malformed conditional (${PORT_OPTIONS:MOTF})
"Makefile", line 174: if-less else
"Makefile", line 176: if-less endif
"Makefile", line 177: if-less else
"Makefile", line 179: Malformed conditional (${PORT_OPTIONS:MM17N})
"Makefile", line 181: if-less elif
"Makefile", line 183: if-less endif
"Makefile", line 185: if-less endif
"Makefile", line 187: Malformed conditional (${PORT_OPTIONS:MMAGICK})
"Makefile", line 190: if-less else
"Makefile", line 192: if-less endif
"Makefile", line 194: Malformed conditional (${PORT_OPTIONS:MGSETTINGS})
"Makefile", line 197: if-less else
"Makefile", line 199: if-less endif
"Makefile", line 201: Malformed conditional (${PORT_OPTIONS:MGCONF})
"Makefile", line 204: if-less else
"Makefile", line 206: if-less endif
"Makefile", line 208: Malformed conditional (${PORT_OPTIONS:MXIM})
"Makefile", line 210: if-less else
"Makefile", line 212: if-less endif
"Makefile", line 214: if-less endif
"Makefile", line 216: Malformed conditional (${PORT_OPTIONS:MSOUND})
"Makefile", line 218: if-less else
"Makefile", line 220: if-less endif
"Makefile", line 222: Malformed conditional (${PORT_OPTIONS:MDBUS})
"Makefile", line 225: if-less else
"Makefile", line 227: if-less endif
"Makefile", line 229: Malformed conditional (${PORT_OPTIONS:MXML})
"Makefile", line 232: if-less else
"Makefile", line 234: if-less endif
"Makefile", line 236: Malformed conditional (${PORT_OPTIONS:MGNUTLS})
"Makefile", line 239: if-less else
"Makefile", line 241: if-less endif
make: fatal errors encountered -- cannot continue

Answer 1

Your make utility is too old to cope with features used by Makefiles of a current ports tree. You must either update the OS or the make utility and all the infrastructure (*.mk files) it uses. The latter is a hairy task and is not recommended. If you don’t want to update your current OS, what about installing a current OS in a virtual machine? The VirtualBox might be a good start (although you probably face another chicken-and-egg problem here: the VirtualBox port Makefile likely causes the same errors.) I’d seriously consider updating your OS to 9-STABLE and have all these problem become a non-issue.