ok, or do you want to fix this a different way?
(the actual failure I got was "checking FFI library usage... configure:
error: The ffi library (libffi) does not appear to be working. Perhaps
it's missing or you need a more recent version. Version 3.0.9 or later
should work, and you can find a link to it n the list of packages for
download at http://www.gnustep.org/resources/sources.html"; but that's
because it tried to link with -lbfd).
Index: Makefile
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvs/ports/x11/gnustep/base/Makefile,v
retrieving revision 1.87
diff -u -p -r1.87 Makefile
--- Makefile 25 Feb 2023 19:41:29 -0000 1.87
+++ Makefile 28 Mar 2023 11:08:54 -0000
@@ -5,6 +5,8 @@ GH_ACCOUNT= gnustep
GH_PROJECT= libs-base
DISTNAME= gnustep-base-${GH_TAGNAME}
+REVISION= 0
+
SHARED_LIBS= gnustep-base 10.6
CATEGORIES= devel
@@ -27,6 +29,9 @@ MASTER_SITES= https://github.com/gnustep
MODULES = x11/gnustep
MODGNUSTEP_NEEDS_GUI= No
MODGNUSTEP_NEEDS_BASE= No
+
+# picks up libbfd.a if present at build time
+BUILD_DEPENDS = devel/gdb
LIB_DEPENDS += converters/libiconv \
devel/libffi \
