Terminal – How MacPorts Works with /Applications/MacPorts and /opt/usr/local/bin

macportsterminalwindow-manager

I have installed i3 under MacPorts. Whenever I run uxterm under X11 it works as expected and I can get vertical and horizontal splits with i3. However, when I try to run kitty — also installed under MacPorts, I get a terminal that opens up as if it was a native OSX application, and not one managed by the Xorg Server that MacPorts installed.

Note, MacPorts installs i3 to /opt/local/bin, and it installs kitty to /Applications/MacPorts/kitty.app. What are the implications of these two different install paths, and can I get i3 to work with MacPorts kitty?

Best Answer

The different install paths does not have a consequence here. It doesn't matter where the application is installed in terms of running under X11 or native OS X.

kitty on macOS is a native macOS application, and is not "managed" by Xorg. You do not need Xquartz, Xorg or X11 at all to run kitty on macOS.

i3 is a window manager for X11. It will only work with and affect X11 applications. You will not be able to use it as a tiling window manager for native macOS applications, such as the default kitty.

In order for kitty to be managed by i3 you would have to recompile kitty using an X11 backend, if that is possible. The X11 backend is already made as it is used on Linux. However it doesn't seem like the X11 backend has been tested on macOS, as the author intends the user to use the native Carbon backend.

Another solution would be to install a macOS tiling window manager such as chunkwm with skhd. That window manager would then be able to tile windows of both native macOS applications as well as the ones managed by XQuartz for example.

Related Solutions

Many programs notify me that “grep/sed/uname/… not found”; some run, some don’t. My system(?) path is damaged, how to go about a diagnosing it

Your question is unclear as it seems to ask several things. However the issue re launching from the Dock can be answered.

The Dock does not call a shell. .profile and other startup scripts are only run when Terminal.app or similar starts a shell or you run a shell script via launchd etc.

To change the path used for Apps launched from the Dock, Finder or other GUI then you need to change the path your Workspace uses this is in ~/.MacOSX/environment.plist e.g. mine is

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
  <key>WAFDIR</key>
  <string>/Users/mark/src/third_party/git-svn/waf</string>

  <key>PATH</key>
  <string>/Users/mark/bin:/Users/mark/env/bin:/Users/mark/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/bin:/opt/local/bin:/usr/local/git/bin:/bin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/usr/sbin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/usr/libexec/binutils:</string>
</dict>
</plist>

Also have a look at this question.

MacPorts Software clean-up: /opt/local/var/macports/software

Yes all the files in that folder located with in ${prefix}/var/macports/software/ can be deleted. Those are the installer packages for programs that you installed using MacPorts. MacPorts will re-download those as necessary when running the install or presumably the upgrade command too for a given program ,etc.

The descripton of the purpose of the directory ... is noted in MacPorts Guide under Binary Archives.

3.4.1. Binary Archives

Binary archives can only be used on a target system running MacPorts. Binary archives allow MacPorts utilities to begin installation after the destroot phase and install and activate a port on the target system. Binary archives are created whenever a port is installed, and can also be downloaded from a server.

...

Binary archive files are placed in ${prefix}/var/macports/software/. The archive file type is set in the macports.conf file. The default format is .tbz2; other options are: tar, tbz, tbz2, tgz, tlz, txz, xar, zip, cpgz, cpio.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Many programs notify me that “grep/sed/uname/… not found”; some run, some don’t. My system(?) path is damaged, how to go about a diagnosing it

MacPorts Software clean-up: /opt/local/var/macports/software

Related Question