GDAL FROM DARWINPORTS WITH PYTHON

DarwinPorts seems like a pretty good UNIX package manager for Mac OS X, but as with any package manager, monkeying with config flags isn’t as simple as calling ./configure. Why, I hear you ejaculate with exasperation, would you even want to? Isn’t that why you’re using a package manager in the first place? Why do you even want more UNIXy nonsense when you already sit at the helm of the best and most perfect operating system in existence?

Well, if you use open source GIS tools, GDAL is a veritable must for getting metadata info for geodata, and most common raster processing operations. Unfortunately, the port DarwinPorts installs doesn’t include the Python bindings, meaning you don’t get the bundled Python script utilities that come with GDAL, nor do you get the ability to use GDAL in Python yourself. For me, fixing this is a very simple matter of editing

/opt/local/var/db/dports/sources/rsync.rsync.darwinports.org_dpupdate_dports/science/gdal/Portfile

Therein you shall find a line that begins

configure.args --without-python ...

which you must change to

configure.args --with-python ...

Tricky, I know. This message was brought to you by the Foundation to Support Ken-ichi’s Future Dying Brain, and the letter G.