Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2024 13:27:40 -0800 From: Chris <portmaster@bsdforge.com> To: Florian Smeets <flo@freebsd.org> Cc: ports@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Proposed ports deprecation and removal policy Message-ID: <3fa7a01e106818b41c494f993037d931@bsdforge.com> In-Reply-To: <435edf7c-a956-4317-b327-3372de70dbef@FreeBSD.org> References: <435edf7c-a956-4317-b327-3372de70dbef@FreeBSD.org>
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On 2024-02-28 11:22, Florian Smeets wrote: > Dear ports community, > > as the removal of ports is a recurring source of friction and dispute we > would > like to add a ports removal and deprecation policy to the porters handbook. > > We tried to find a sensible middle ground between too fast removal and > keeping > unmaintained and abandoned upstream software in our ports tree forever. > > When can or should ports be deprecated or removed? > > This policy should give some guidance on when ports can or should be > removed. In > general ports should not be removed without reason but if a port blocks > progress > it should be deprecated and subsequently removed. In general, if a ports > blocks > progress for some time it will be removed so that progress can be made. For > more > details see below. > > > Ports can be removed immediately if one of the following conditions is met: > > - Upstream distfile is no longer available from the original source/mirror > (Our > and other distcaches e.g. Debian, Gentoo, etc do not count as "available") > - Upstream WWW is unavailable: deprecate, remove after 3 months > - BROKEN for more than 6 months > - has known vulnerabilities that weren’t addressed in the ports tree for > more than 3 months > > > A port can be deprecated and subsequently removed if: > > - Upstream declared the version EOL or officially stopped development. > DEPRECATED > should be set as soon as the planned removal date is know. (It is up to the > maintainer if they want to remove the port immediately after the EOL date or > if > they want keep the port for some time with backported patches. Option two is > *not* > possible without backporting patches, see vulnerable ports) The general > suggestion > is that EOL versions should not stay in the ports tree for more than 3 > months > without justification. > - The port does not adapt to infrastructure changes (i.e. USE_STAGE, > MANPREFIX, > compiler updates, etc.) within 6 months. Ports should be set to DEPRECATED > after 3 > months and can be removed after 6 > > > Reasons that do not warrant removal of a port: > > - Software hasn’t seen a release in a long time > - Upstream looks inactive for a long time > > Florian (on behalf of portmgr) Thank you very much for your attempt to set precedence in this area. Your proposal seems well tempered and prudent. Thank you. Consider this a "+1" from me. :) --Chris -- --Chris Hutchinson
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