This confuses tools relying on Xcode, such as some MacPorts package relying on Xcode to compile code on your machine before installation.

For example :

---> Fetching archive for zlib
---> Attempting to fetch zlib-1.2.6_0.darwin_11.x86_64.tbz2 from http://packages.macports.org/zlib
---> Fetching zlib
---> Attempting to fetch zlib-1.2.6.tar.bz2 from http://lil.fr.distfiles.macports.org/zlib
---> Verifying checksum(s) for zlib
---> Extracting zlib
Error: Couldn't determine your Xcode version (from '/usr/bin/xcodebuild -version').

(more line stripped for clarity)

This can be solved with a single command line terminal, to tell Xcode command line tools the new location of Xcode.

sudo xcode-select -switch /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/

I am still unsure this an Apple bug or a MacPort bug … I am keen to read your opinion about this.

Enjoy !

Question is therefore : how to install MacPort on Lion ?  Answer : install it from the sources.

It might be scarry, but it is very easy, here are the details.

Preriquisite : install Aple’s development tool XCode.  It is freely available from the App Store (be patient it is a 3.5 Gb download)

• Open a terminal
• create a directory for the sources

mkdir macport.sources

• Fetch the sources

cd macport.sources
sudo svn checkout http://svn.macports.org/repository/macports/trunk

• Compile

cd trunk/base
sudo ./configure --enable-readline
sudo make install

• Install

sudo make distclean

• Change your profile to include MacPort in the PATH

vi $HOME/.profile

#!/usr/bin/bash
# MacPort
export PATH=$PATH:/opt/local/bin

• Source your profile to include the changes

. $HOME/.profile

That’s it ! Easy as I promised.

You can now search for package with

sudo port list | grep <your search>

and install packages with

sudo port install <package name>

Enjoy !