Re: Ports maintainer or adopting a port
On Saturday 31 March 2007, Kimi Ostro wrote: > Not sure if this is appropriate for this list, basically I am looking > to hear from past, current and future ports maintainers: > > is it fun? I maintain a couple ports. Both were "new" in that they weren't in the ports collection before I submitted them. Both were pieces of software that I wanted to use, and for me the ports system made the actual "porting" much easier than it otherwise would have been. I didn't have to figure out how to use gmake instead of make, didn't have to manually extract the tarball every time I wanted a clean start (just do "make extract" or "make patch" once you have a couple basic lines in the port's makefile). Similarly, once you have a basic packing list you can "make install" and "make deinstall" instead of trying to copy or delete things manually. I think it's a lot of fun as long as you don't bite off more than you can chew. > what are the requirements? (besides time) In the case of software that isn't updated frequently, the requirements are pretty minimal, especially if you aren't doing the initial port. You should try to be proactive in keeping track of updates to the software (or at the very least respond quickly to e-mails to you as the port maintainer). For many programs you don't need to have much if any programming experience, just a willingness to read and understand the Porter's Handbook, and the ability to get your head around make(1) and Makefiles. Obviously programming experience is helpful in cases where things won't build cleanly or weren't written with portability in mind. > what does it mean to you? do you recommend it? I definitely recommend it. One of my favorite things to get in my e-mail is "Commited, thanks!" I second Garrett's two cents about warm fuzzies and community contribution[1], and as a side benefit you get bragging rights which can be useful in the broader open-source community or even with regards to employment or things like discounted web hosting. > best way to get started? what do I need to know about FreeBSD & Ports? Partially covered above; you should be familiar with FreeBSD in general and how and where it is used. Participation in the community (esp. via the mailing lists) is at least as important actually using the OS regularly for real-world activities. To get started just pick something to work on and do it; preferably something that has some utility or importance to you. If you get stuck ask for help (here or on -ports, generally). When you get something that's usable and at least a little polished, send in a PR. The ports team does an awesome job of giving feedback and getting things committed quickly once they're ready. > I am looking at adopting a port or two and looking to gain more > insight, maybe someone that can do projects page for ports? which > holds a list of unmaintained ports?? Others have suggested good ways to identify unmaintained ports. There is also a lot of software out there that's not in the ports tree but easily could be. Sourceforge projects, Perl modules on CPAN, and other websites might be good places to look around and see what's out there. JN [1] I enjoy esr's take on open-source and the gift culture philosophy: http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/homesteading/ar01s06.html ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: Ports maintainer or adopting a port
On Friday 30 March 2007, Beech Rintoul said: > On Friday 30 March 2007, Kimi Ostro said: > > Hello list > > > > Not sure if this is appropriate for this list, basically I am > > looking to hear from past, current and future ports maintainers: > > > > is it fun? what are the requirements? (besides time) what does it > > mean to you? do you recommend it? best way to get started? what > > do I need to know about FreeBSD & Ports? > > The first thing you should do is to subscribe to freebsd-ports@ > mailing list. > > Next you should read the Porter's Handbook and become very familiar > with it. Just about everything you need to know is in there. > > http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/porters-handbook/i >ndex.html > > > I am looking at adopting a port or two and looking to gain more > > insight, maybe someone that can do projects page for ports? which > > holds a list of unmaintained ports?? I forgot to mention you can go to http://www.freshports.org and do a search on maintainer [EMAIL PROTECTED] That will list all 4283 of the unmaintained ports. Take your pick and go for it. :-) > > Here is a list of broken ports with no maintainer: > > http://people.freebsd.org/~fenner/errorlogs/[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > You can also adopt any port that the maintainer is listed as ports@ > > Have fun, > > Beech -- --- Beech Rintoul - Port Maintainer - [EMAIL PROTECTED] /"\ ASCII Ribbon Campaign | FreeBSD Since 4.x \ / - NO HTML/RTF in e-mail | http://www.freebsd.org X - NO Word docs in e-mail | Latest Release: / \ - http://www.freebsd.org/releases/6.2R/announce.html --- ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: Ports maintainer or adopting a port
On Friday 30 March 2007, Kimi Ostro said: > Hello list > > Not sure if this is appropriate for this list, basically I am > looking to hear from past, current and future ports maintainers: > > is it fun? what are the requirements? (besides time) what does it > mean to you? do you recommend it? best way to get started? what do > I need to know about FreeBSD & Ports? The first thing you should do is to subscribe to freebsd-ports@ mailing list. Next you should read the Porter's Handbook and become very familiar with it. Just about everything you need to know is in there. http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/porters-handbook/index.html > > I am looking at adopting a port or two and looking to gain more > insight, maybe someone that can do projects page for ports? which > holds a list of unmaintained ports?? Here is a list of broken ports with no maintainer: http://people.freebsd.org/~fenner/errorlogs/[EMAIL PROTECTED] You can also adopt any port that the maintainer is listed as ports@ Have fun, Beech -- --- Beech Rintoul - Port Maintainer - [EMAIL PROTECTED] /"\ ASCII Ribbon Campaign | FreeBSD Since 4.x \ / - NO HTML/RTF in e-mail | http://www.freebsd.org X - NO Word docs in e-mail | Latest Release: / \ - http://www.freebsd.org/releases/6.2R/announce.html --- ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: Ports maintainer or adopting a port
Kimi Ostro wrote: Hello list Not sure if this is appropriate for this list, basically I am looking to hear from past, current and future ports maintainers: is it fun? what are the requirements? (besides time) what does it mean to you? do you recommend it? best way to get started? what do I need to know about FreeBSD & Ports? I am looking at adopting a port or two and looking to gain more insight, maybe someone that can do projects page for ports? which holds a list of unmaintained ports?? Kimi, <2 cents>Like many things it's fulfilling to look at a hard day's (or a few minutes, hours, etc, the lesser of the bunch) and be satisfied at what you've accomplished, for this is a community effort and not a one-way street. (not meaning to sound hippy~ish, but..) Ideally everyone should help one another out and benefit the entire community as a whole. That's what this is designed for. You should subscribe to the ports@ list though. There's periodically a list of broken ports sent out, and inquiries about port maintainers, etc. Very similar to what you're looking into I believe. Cheers, -Garrett ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Ports maintainer or adopting a port
Hello list Not sure if this is appropriate for this list, basically I am looking to hear from past, current and future ports maintainers: is it fun? what are the requirements? (besides time) what does it mean to you? do you recommend it? best way to get started? what do I need to know about FreeBSD & Ports? I am looking at adopting a port or two and looking to gain more insight, maybe someone that can do projects page for ports? which holds a list of unmaintained ports?? -- Kimi ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
