From owner-freebsd-ports@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Dec 13 10:53:55 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 395D316A4CF for ; Mon, 13 Dec 2004 10:53:55 +0000 (GMT) Received: from smtp806.mail.ukl.yahoo.com (smtp806.mail.ukl.yahoo.com [217.12.12.196]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 4E59643D53 for ; Mon, 13 Dec 2004 10:53:54 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from matt_mills@btopenworld.com) Received: from unknown (HELO ?192.168.0.1?) (matt?mills@btopenworld.com@81.129.190.139 with plain) by smtp806.mail.ukl.yahoo.com with SMTP; 13 Dec 2004 10:53:53 -0000 Message-ID: <41BD7521.6020302@btopenworld.com> Date: Mon, 13 Dec 2004 10:55:29 +0000 From: Matt Mills User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0RC1 (Windows/20041201) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Kris Kennaway References: <20041212000009.GB86390@xor.obsecurity.org> In-Reply-To: <20041212000009.GB86390@xor.obsecurity.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit cc: ports@FreeBSD.org 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: Mon, 13 Dec 2004 10:53:55 -0000 Kris Kennaway wrote: > 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. Obviously, I may be about to ask questions that appear in the document in question, but I'll take that risk as there are some ports I could maintain. What skills does a port maintainer need to have? For instance, is it enough to be proficient with the software, to have basic system administration skills and an understanding of how the ports tree works, or is there some programming involved? I presume the latter as I would guess that the maintainers provide patches for ports that do not compile out of the box. I have some very basic C/C++ skills but am reluctant to take on maintainership(?) of any ports for fear of lack of skill. -- Matt