Hi, MacPorts developers,
Long-time Homebrew user and recent MacPorts convert here.
Minor usability issue with the `port` program, I think: I suspect that a
common operation for regular MacPorts users to do is "upgrade all my
stuff to the latest version".
I tried doing this with `port selfupdate`; `port upgrade`, and got this
error message:
[~] $ sudo port selfupdate
---> Updating MacPorts base sources using rsync
MacPorts base version 2.7.1 installed,
MacPorts base version 2.7.1 downloaded.
---> Updating the ports tree
---> MacPorts base is already the latest version
The ports tree has been updated. To upgrade your installed ports, you
should run
port upgrade outdated
[~] $ sudo port upgrade
Can't map the URL 'file://.' to a port description file ("Could not find
Portfile in /Users/janke").
Please verify that the directory and portfile syntax are correct.
To use the current port, you must be in a port's directory.
[~] $
I'm a dev with 25 years of coding and sysadmin experience, and I don't
know what to do with that error message. I dunno what a regular user is
supposed to do with that. (Yes, I saw the "To upgrade your installed
ports" output from the selfupdate command, but still.)
Maybe the error message here could be modified to include a "maybe you
meant `port upgrade outdated`" message or something like that? Where's
the 'file://'" coming from, anyway? Does `port upgrade` operate on some
port definition found in the current working directory by default? I did
not provide a URL as an input to the `port upgrade` command, so it's a
little unexpected that I got an error complaining about a URL here.
Cheers,
Andrew
