From owner-freebsd-ports@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Aug 18 16:37:25 2009 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 8E8DB1065690 for ; Tue, 18 Aug 2009 16:37:25 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from stephen@missouri.edu) Received: from cauchy.math.missouri.edu (cauchy.math.missouri.edu [128.206.184.213]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5CEA08FC68 for ; Tue, 18 Aug 2009 16:37:25 +0000 (UTC) Received: from [128.206.184.213] (cauchy.math.missouri.edu [128.206.184.213]) by cauchy.math.missouri.edu (8.14.3/8.14.3) with ESMTP id n7IGalKc048357; Tue, 18 Aug 2009 11:36:47 -0500 (CDT) (envelope-from stephen@missouri.edu) Message-ID: <4A8AD89F.5050600@missouri.edu> Date: Tue, 18 Aug 2009 11:36:47 -0500 From: Stephen Montgomery-Smith User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; FreeBSD i386; en-US; rv:1.8.1.22) Gecko/20090809 SeaMonkey/1.1.17 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Anton Shterenlikht References: <20090818154751.GA1930@mech-cluster241.men.bris.ac.uk> In-Reply-To: <20090818154751.GA1930@mech-cluster241.men.bris.ac.uk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: ports@freebsd.org Subject: Re: port science/paraview X-BeenThere: freebsd-ports@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Porting software to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 18 Aug 2009 16:37:25 -0000 Anton Shterenlikht wrote: > port science/paraview is far behind the current version. > > I do understand that nobody really takes care of it, > so please do not see this as a request. I'm grateful > that somebody has created this port at all! > > I'd like to help but I've never done any serious > port work, just occasional patches. > What is your estimate of the amount of work, and of > skills required to bring this port up to date? > > many thanks > In my experience, you usually cannot tell how hard it is going to be until you try. But quite often, the process of updating a port is not that hard. Certainly you don't necessarily have to understand how everything works to do this. Try changing the version number in the port, do a "make makesum" to download the source and make the distinfo file, and then do a "make" and see what happens. Quite likely you will need to remove some of the patches from the directory "files" - do this on a "try it and see" basis. The one file that will almost certainly need updating is "pkg-plist." I really do recommend you just try to update the port yourself, and see if you can do it.