So I did, what I should have done at the beginning. I read the installing and error messages article on the couchdb wiki.
After this I did:
- sudo port install erlang -universal
- sudo port install couchdb-devel
[update 12.08.2012] Running sudo port upgrade outdated stopped with
Error: org.macports.configure for port couchdb-devel returned: command execution failed
So I removed couchdb and erlang, as it also was updated and redid the above steps. It failed again. Checking the log file it showed
this file was generated for autoconf 2.61.
You have another version of autoconf. If you want to use that,
you should regenerate the build system entirely.
This was not, what I wanted to do. I tried to install couchdb instead (no -devel) and it worked. Next time I will try to install erlang without -universal
I had to start the couchdb demon multiple times before I was abale to connect. Not sure why.