I'm a big fan of the FreeBSD port system. But the last few weeks
I had problems updating my freebsd ports.
A growing number of ports were giving the following error: "cc: /sbin:/bin:/...:/root/bin: No such file or directory"
A full sample:
libtool: link: cc -shared .libs/lqr_gradient.o .libs/lqr_rwindow.o .libs/lqr_energy.o .libs/lqr_cursor.o .libs/lqr_carver.o .libs/lqr_carver_list.o .libs/lqr_carver_bias.o .libs/lqr_carver_rigmask.o .libs/lqr_vmap.o .libs/lqr_vmap_list.o .libs/lqr_progress.o -Wl,-rpath -Wl,/usr/local/lib -Wl,-rpath -Wl,/usr/local/lib -L/usr/local/lib /usr/local/lib/libglib-2.0.so /sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/root/bin /usr/local/lib/libintl.so /usr/local/lib/libiconv.so /usr/local/lib/libpcre.so -lm -Wl,-soname -Wl,liblqr-1.so.3 -o .libs/liblqr-1.so.3 cc: /sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/root/bin: No such file or directory gmake[2]: *** [liblqr-1.la] Error 1 gmake[2]: Leaving directory `/usr/ports/graphics/liblqr-1/work/liblqr-1-0.4.1/lqr' gmake[1]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1 gmake[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/ports/graphics/liblqr-1/work/liblqr-1-0.4.1' gmake: *** [all] Error 2 *** Error code 1
After a lof of debugging and digging deeply in the /work directories of the broken ports. I found out
that libtool was generating a 'wrong' cc command. The part -L /sbin:/bin/usr/bin ... etc was wrong. The path seperator ':' should not be used. I thought libtool was broken. (Rule X pragmatic programmer: "SELECT Isn't broken" ;-) )
After dinging deeply in this script I saw the $path variable was placed in this command...
After typing 'set' to see all environment variables I found out I defined a custom $path variable.
Probably by a typing mistake. Because the real environment variable for path is PATH (uppercase...)
After remove this variable 'path' ("unset path" in bash), all my problems were gone.... Yess !
So some words of wisdom: NEVER define an environment variable 'path' on freebsd !! (And be VERY careful with your other environment variables!)