From owner-freebsd-ports@FreeBSD.ORG Sat May 24 20:01:47 2014 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-ports@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [8.8.178.115]) (using TLSv1 with cipher ADH-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id E1D3824E for ; Sat, 24 May 2014 20:01:47 +0000 (UTC) Received: from home.opsec.eu (home.opsec.eu [IPv6:2001:14f8:200::1]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 (256/256 bits)) (Client did not present a certificate) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 9D9AE2903 for ; Sat, 24 May 2014 20:01:47 +0000 (UTC) Received: from pi by home.opsec.eu with local (Exim 4.82 (FreeBSD)) (envelope-from ) id 1WoI8a-0008t1-44; Sat, 24 May 2014 22:01:48 +0200 Date: Sat, 24 May 2014 22:01:48 +0200 From: Kurt Jaeger To: Marco Beishuizen Subject: Re: port maintainership of alpine? Message-ID: <20140524200148.GI2341@home.opsec.eu> References: <20140524194346.GH2341@home.opsec.eu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: Cc: freebsd-ports@freebsd.org X-BeenThere: freebsd-ports@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.18 Precedence: list List-Id: Porting software to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 24 May 2014 20:01:48 -0000 Hi! [maintaining mail/alpine] > >> So I was thinking of becoming a port maintainer. Although I'm using > >> FreeBSD for 15 years now, I have no programming experience at all. > > > > Do you have experience building software ? What is your background ? > > Other than building ports, no. I don't have an IT background, but a > finance and legal background so that's not helping me here :-). The finance-background should help you getting the details 8-) How many ports did you already build yourself ? On which fbsd versions ? Did you sometimes fix ports to get them to build ? > >> So my first question is if it is possible for someone like me to become a > >> maintainer for a port like alpine, or should I learn programming in C > >> first? > > Learning 'make' would probably more important to maintain the port. > > Given that the latest alpine release was around 2008, it looks like > > this software is not maintained even upstream! For this, you will > > definitly need C skills. > > The version in ports is old but alpine is still being developed and > currently at version 2.11. Ah! Thanks for the pointer. Then you only need to get the 'make' stuff. How much 'make' did you take up on the side ? > > Given the deadline for non-staged ports, it looks like a tight race. > > I know so that is why I'm interested. I guess (very rough guess, I know) you need between 40 to 80 hours (!) to dig deep enough to get it done. You need to learn make. -- pi@opsec.eu +49 171 3101372 6 years to go !