Question

MacPorts installed “libiconv @1.14_0+universal” as a dependency on my system. This happens to be a 32-bit flavor and it started causing issue when I tried to compile a voice recognition software called Simon Listens.
While googling I found out that that Mac actually ships with a 64-bit flavor of libiconv by default and I was able to locate the said files on my system:

$ find /usr/lib -name libiconv*
/usr/lib/libiconv.2.4.0.dylib
/usr/lib/libiconv.2.dylib
/usr/lib/libiconv.dylib

In order to use the system library, the quickest way I could think of was to uninstall MacPort’s version of libiconv so that the system’s library would end up getting selected as a fallback as it has to present (my guess) somewhere downstairs on the PATH already.

But that failed due to dependecies:

$ sudo port uninstall libiconv @1.14_0+universal
Unable to uninstall libiconv @1.14_0+universal, the following ports depend on it:
...

So now my question is how can I tell MacPort to replace its dependency graph to point to and use the library already on my system?

Answer 1

Another approach to avoid MacPorts libiconv issues would be to build simon against a fresh MacPorts system plus the necessary packages such as cyrus-sasl2, zlib, portaudio and kdesdk4 in a custom location, e. g. /opt/macports-simon.

The following code worked for me on my machine running Mac OS X 10.6.8:

# compile simon on Mac OS X 10.6.8 using MacPorts for the installation of zlib, portaudio and kdesdk4
# http://www.simon-listens.org
# http://sourceforge.net/projects/speech2text/

# get a root shell
sudo -H -i  

# prevent idle sleep
pmset -a force sleep 0 displaysleep 0 disksleep 0

mv -i /opt/local /opt/local-off
mv -i /usr/local /usr/local-off

cd /tmp
mkdir buildsimon || exit 1
cd buildsimon || exit 1

# create custom /opt/macports-simon to install zlib, portaudio and kdesdk4
# cf. http://guide.macports.org/#installing.macports.source.multiple
MP_PREFIX='/opt/macports-simon'
unset PATH
export PATH='/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin'
curl -L -O https://distfiles.macports.org/MacPorts/MacPorts-2.0.4.tar.bz2
tar -xjf MacPorts-2.0.4.tar.bz2
cd MacPorts-2.0.4 || exit 1
./configure --prefix="${MP_PREFIX}" --with-applications-dir="${MP_PREFIX}/Applications"
make
make install

cd /tmp/buildsimon

unset PATH
export PATH="${MP_PREFIX}/bin:/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin"

# get the Portfiles and update the system
port -v selfupdate

# install cyrus-sasl2
port -f uninstall cyrus-sasl2
port clean --all cyrus-sasl2
port extract cyrus-sasl2
cd "$(port dir cyrus-sasl2)"/work/cyrus-sasl-2.1.23
printf '%s\n' H '/\(darwin\[15\]\)/s//\1./g' wq | sudo ed -s config/ltconfig
printf '%s\n' H '/\(darwin\[15\]\)/s//\1./g' wq | sudo ed -s saslauthd/config/ltconfig
cd /tmp/buildsimon
port -f -s install cyrus-sasl2
otool -L /opt/macports-simon/lib/libsasl2.dylib

port -f install zlib
port -f install portaudio
port -f install kdesdk4

port installed zlib portaudio kdesdk4 cyrus-sasl2

# enable dbus with launchd
# http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/dbus
# open -e dbus-1.5.8/README.launchd
launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.freedesktop.dbus-system.plist 
launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchAgents/org.freedesktop.dbus-session.plist
sudo -u _mysql mysql_install_db5
sudo port load mysql5-server

# todo: how to configure simon to use /opt/macports-simon directly?
ln -isv "${MP_PREFIX}" /usr/local

cd /tmp/buildsimon

# http://sourceforge.net/projects/speech2text/
curl -L -O http://netcologne.dl.sourceforge.net/project/speech2text/simon/0.3.0/simon-0.3.0.tar.bz2
tar -xjf simon-0.3.0.tar.bz2 
cd simon-0.3.0 || exit 1

# Note that /usr/local got symlinked to "${MP_PREFIX}" above!
unset PATH
export PATH='/usr/local/bin:/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin'


# the following commands are taken from simon-0.3.0/build.sh

mkdir build 2> /dev/null
cd build || exit 1
cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=`kde4-config --prefix` ..

# append ${MP_PREFIX}/lib/libiconv.dylib to gcc command in link.txt file
printf '%s\n' H '/\/usr\/bin\/gcc/s|\(.*\)|\1 '"${MP_PREFIX}"'/lib/libiconv.dylib|' wq | 
   ed -s julius/julius/CMakeFiles/juliusexe.dir/link.txt

# replace gcc option ' -bundle ' with ' -dynamiclib '
egrep -Ilsr -Z -e ' -bundle ' . | 
   xargs -0 -n 1 /bin/sh -c 'printf "%s\n" H "g/ -bundle /s// -dynamiclib /g" wq | /bin/ed -s "${1}"' argv0

make

touch ./julius/gramtools/mkdfa/mkfa-1.44-flex/* 
make 
make install
# ldconfig    # not needed on Mac OS X
kbuildsycoca4 
echo -e "**** Build completed ****\n\nThe executable file \"simon\" is now ready and has been installed.\n\nIssue \"simon\" to start it."

unset PATH
export PATH="${MP_PREFIX}/bin:/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin"

otool -L "${MP_PREFIX}/bin/simon"

simon

mv -i /opt/local-off /opt/local 
mv -i /usr/local-off /usr/local