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Date:      Wed, 22 May 2002 09:46:53 -0700
From:      Scott Renfro <scott@renfro.org>
To:        "Andrey A. Chernov" <ache@nagual.pp.ru>
Cc:        kris@obsecurity.org, ports@FreeBSD.ORG, portmgr@FreeBSD.ORG, core@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: My position on commiters guide 10.4.4
Message-ID:  <20020522094653.A63157@renfro.org>
In-Reply-To: <20020522041150.GA92851@nagual.pp.ru>; from ache@nagual.pp.ru on Wed, May 22, 2002 at 08:11:51AM %2B0400
References:  <20020522041150.GA92851@nagual.pp.ru>

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On Wed, May 22, 2002 at 08:11:51AM +0400, Andrey A. Chernov wrote:
> 
> http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/committers-guide/ports.html#Q10.4.4.
> 
> I am in strong disagreement with this rule, because, in general, it
> is not a porter tasks described there. Lets go into details. First of
> all, here is whole text to make citation easy to find:

This is a reasonable rule for which the intent is clear: when updating
a checksum without a corresponding version change, take reasonable
measures to ensure the authenticity of the change.

Here's my interpretation of the rule.

For many ports where this situation arises, a diff of the two different
distfiles is sufficient to verify that it was an intended and
superficial change (e.g., corrects a typo in a README, repackages the
files into a single subdirectory instead of the tarfile's top level
directory, or adds a forgotten file).

In rarer situations, diffing the distfiles won't easily work.  (e.g.,
don't have the old file, it contains modified object files, or the
changes are significant enough that the changes aren't immediately
obvious to the porter).  In these cases, the porter should contact the
original authors for an explanation and verification of the new
distfile's checksum -- which is more or less what 10.4.4 requires.

As I read 10.4.4, these two steps are effectively an 'or' clause.
Review the diff 'or' contact the original author.  That's a quite
reasonable burden on a porter.

If the diff isn't possible or doesn't make sense and the authors won't
respond, then don't update the checksum.  If the diff is obviously ok
or the authors verify the authenticity of the change, then update the
checksum, noting what changed in the commit message.

at least that's mho,

--Scott

-- 
Scott Renfro <scott@renfro.org>

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