I loved MacPorts, greatly preferred it over Brew, and used it all the time on Mac OS back then on my PowerBook and my dying Mac Mini, but doesn't Apple's notarization requirement make it impossible to compile from source to create runnable binaries?
No. Even with Gatekeeper enabled, running binaries that you compile from source on your own machine doesn't require that they be notarized. As of Big Sur, they must be _signed_, but can be self-signed by a certificate you create locally. No need for Apple's approval in any way. I don't know what the status of supporting this new requirement in MacPorts (or Homebrew) is, but it's certainly something that can be dealt with.
Apple's linker will automatically adhoc sign binaries on AS systems so it shouldn't require any work for most people.
Anything run from the Xcode UI (or Terminal if you use "spctl developer-mode enable-terminal" to show the Developer Tools group under Security > Privacy in System Preferences) and enable Terminal is exempt from GateKeeper notarization checks. You can also put other terminal clients in the same list and they get the same benefit (child processes exempt from GateKeeper).
In a similar note "DevToolsSecurity -enable" allows any admin or member of the _developer group to use the debugger or performance tools without authing first. (Normally you must auth the first time and the authorization can expire if you don't unlock your system after a certain amount of time).
> In a similar note "DevToolsSecurity -enable" allows any admin or member of the _developer group to use the debugger or performance tools without authing first.
Oh nice! That was a big annoyance on older systems; glad to see they've fixed it.
Since Gatekeeper was originally announced I've seen people claiming that Apple were going to lock down macOS so Homebrew wouldn't work any more. I've never seen evidence that this will actually happen (and the people I speak to at Apple point to the opposite).
Yes they do. But the question is, why would they make a decision that will instantly make the machine completely unusable for a substantial portion of their clientele? Also, the portion that arguably gives MacBooks and, especially, iOS devices their value.
