How to avoid MacPorts conflict with /usr/local

Question

Since MacPorts is not compatible with /usr/local *, whenever I install/update ports with MacPorts I would

sudo mv /usr/local /usr/local.bak

and after I am done building MacPorts stuff

sudo mv /usr/local.bak /usr/local

This works and solves a lot of the previous mysterious build errors. However it is very cumbersome and sometimes I don't remember to do this, either the "before" step or the "after" step, and have to fix it afterward.

Is there a better way to avoid this conflict?

EDIT * see these links for examples/suggestions of temporarily moving /usr/local as a solution to MacPort build problems.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1827377/install-git-core-svn-fails-with-macport

https://trac.macports.org/ticket/21649

https://trac.macports.org/ticket/29998

Answer 1

I don't understand what /usr/local conflicts you're talking about. MacPorts intentionally uses its own /opt hierarchy in order to avoid conflicting with anything you already had in /usr/local. It shouldn't be putting anything in /usr/local unless perhaps you changed its configuration.

Were you thinking of Homebrew? I believe Homebrew still puts things in /usr/local by default, whereas MacPorts uses /opt and Fink uses /sw.

So I guess my "better way to avoid this conflict" is to use MacPorts instead of Homebrew, and leave MacPorts set to its default prefix of /opt.