From owner-freebsd-ports@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Nov 11 22:15:12 2011 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ports@FreeBSD.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id CB17C1065670; Fri, 11 Nov 2011 22:15:12 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from delphij@delphij.net) Received: from anubis.delphij.net (anubis.delphij.net [IPv6:2001:470:1:117::25]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id AB8B88FC08; Fri, 11 Nov 2011 22:15:12 +0000 (UTC) Received: from delta.delphij.net (drawbridge.ixsystems.com [206.40.55.65]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-CAMELLIA256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by anubis.delphij.net (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 48E7315566; Fri, 11 Nov 2011 14:15:12 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=simple/simple; d=delphij.net; s=anubis; t=1321049712; bh=T2XyrtR1BhwEsHsYLkBwmYDC7+F1wahsGoAiWYQdaPE=; h=Message-ID:Date:From:Reply-To:MIME-Version:To:CC:Subject: References:In-Reply-To:Content-Type:Content-Transfer-Encoding; b=3d4hnTEj8ivFYndXBSQQLeZxulUq0FgomDdwBExY4782Ggw/AFwD/44/s8mHMM9wH z8pZ9bE/FvHgowTnshCwiY2jsP8JN5vwIQbGIZTpeOEY6hqzuX8hrRTm79xXfIRA/5 kLV5ar4/DJ4iAzhogmcfbqRnG8kKa8mlKAlglwdw= Message-ID: <4EBD9E6F.3040708@delphij.net> Date: Fri, 11 Nov 2011 14:15:11 -0800 From: Xin LI Organization: The FreeBSD Project MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Mark Linimon References: <20111109124325.17efc0d1.stas@deglitch.com> <20111109222435.GD92221@azathoth.lan> <20111110110637.GA3514@hades.panopticon> <4EBCC587.10701@FreeBSD.org> <20111111100708.GA24126@hades.panopticon> <20111111124012.3ec48cb3.stas@deglitch.com> <20111111213817.GB8896@lonesome.com> In-Reply-To: <20111111213817.GB8896@lonesome.com> OpenPGP: id=3FCA37C1; url=http://www.delphij.net/delphij.asc Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: ports@FreeBSD.org, Baptiste Daroussin , Dmitry Marakasov , Stanislav Sedov , Martin Wilke Subject: Re: Recent ports removal X-BeenThere: freebsd-ports@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: d@delphij.net List-Id: Porting software to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 11 Nov 2011 22:15:12 -0000 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA256 (I just picked one message to do a reply-all, not specific to any one single message but all of them). Technically speaking the current approach's problem is that the user might have no chance of seeing it before the port is removed. By its nature, deprecated ports tends not to be updated for long time, port tools like portmaster, portupgrade will not even see it because no PORTREVISION bump happen. For users who install from packages, there is no deprecation message at all, and it's pretty likely that these user when updating to a new version suddenly find the software missing. I think if we want to deprecate ports in a constant manner, we need to do a better job of letting the user (or let's say potential contributor) know it. My own server in China have went offline for a few months before my friend rebuild and install one for me, and I suddenly noticed that some of previous ports maintained by someone else have been marked as DEPRECATED because upstream gone. Think about this: FreeBSD is not just a product, it's also a project and a community. It's never an overkill to do more things to keep developers, contributors and potential contributors happy and continue to contribute. Making them happy is not "do whatever they want us to do" but to think more about "what they would think, and how we can improve". Cheers, - -- Xin LI https://www.delphij.net/ FreeBSD - The Power to Serve! Live free or die -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.18 (FreeBSD) iQEcBAEBCAAGBQJOvZ5uAAoJEATO+BI/yjfBkxYIAKwfR3KRGr4l0AY1fV8Os0MR +0GTUlOnTtaIybk81NcmLhyonSr1GsKAbqyAz5D9hsVFWdNOIeP6G/AnYRIak9Gs ffrFCIN6WjiFmYORQVSTOl3noQmAC4E066vl2PceOUL8sHyHI6O85SuraY0noaVQ p3AV58sQqIuUTpV4f3gPG1nFiDrJT1ZxtLANWjveSNNKDrdcalgjPtPbv1DUYPgp 10me7cVkqp5rrCs2fVUP92037x7XljAZjDi8AaEPf/LtV7Rb+IgC9bE1erk8u8w5 RHoWp2er6szTi70v3CUH7YI7WV31wpphBCY75w/kcvJ4FW1OmUOMjXksVfvLZo8= =xhBR -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----