From owner-freebsd-ports@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Dec 12 00:02:12 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-ports@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D4D0816A4CE for ; Sun, 12 Dec 2004 00:02:12 +0000 (GMT) Received: from ms05.mailstreet2003.net (MS05.mailstreet2003.net [63.251.155.133]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4D1DF43D54 for ; Sun, 12 Dec 2004 00:02:12 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from chris@sigd.net) X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft Exchange V6.5.6944.0 Content-class: urn:content-classes:message MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Date: Sat, 11 Dec 2004 19:02:04 -0500 Message-ID: <6FC9F9894A9F8C49A722CF9F2132FC22029EB1E8@ms05.mailstreet2003.net> X-MS-Has-Attach: X-MS-TNEF-Correlator: Thread-Topic: "Being a port maintainer" document Thread-Index: AcTf3MWX9S9U2L89RsqIeUokTScbnAAAP12A From: "Haulmark, Chris" To: "Kris Kennaway" , Subject: RE: "Being a port maintainer" document X-BeenThere: freebsd-ports@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Porting software to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 12 Dec 2004 00:02:12 -0000 Someone broke the silence:=20 > At the moment, too many of our ports have no maintainer. This means > that there's no-one available to fix problems that occur with the > ports or to deal with user support questions. In some cases this is > probably because no-one actually uses the software in question any > more, but in other cases it's probably just because no-one in the user > community has come forward to take over. >=20 > I'd like to put out a general call for people to volunteer to maintain > our unmaintained ports -- this is a great way for users to "give > something back" to FreeBSD and help out the project -- but we need > some form of document we can show them that lists the rights and > responsibilities of port maintainers, so they have an idea of what's > expected from them. The porters' handbook does a good job of > describing the details of constructing a port, but not the > higher-level aspects of being a port maintainer. >=20 > e.g. >=20 > * Updating the port when a new version is released >=20 > * Pushing local changes back upstream to the original authors >=20 > * Fixing port errors reported by the package build cluster >=20 > * Dealing with user support requests, at least by pointing them to the > upstream developers for cases where it's not clearly a FreeBSD > port-specific problem.=20 >=20 > * Evaluating PRs submitted against the port >=20 > * Responding to change requests in a timely manner (2 weeks). >=20 > * ... >=20 > Can someone write up such a document? >=20 > Kris I have an interest. There are several ports that come to mind that I believe that I can be capable of. Chris