From owner-freebsd-ports@freebsd.org Wed May 10 11:43:55 2017 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-ports@mailman.ysv.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) by mailman.ysv.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8D463D661FF for ; Wed, 10 May 2017 11:43:55 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from natbsd@instinctive.eu) Received: from mail-yw0-x22b.google.com (mail-yw0-x22b.google.com [IPv6:2607:f8b0:4002:c05::22b]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 (128/128 bits)) (Client CN "smtp.gmail.com", Issuer "Google Internet Authority G2" (verified OK)) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 5556B1435 for ; Wed, 10 May 2017 11:43:54 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from natbsd@instinctive.eu) Received: by mail-yw0-x22b.google.com with SMTP id 203so13946325ywe.0 for ; Wed, 10 May 2017 04:43:54 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=instinctive-eu.20150623.gappssmtp.com; s=20150623; h=date:from:to:subject:message-id:mime-version:content-disposition :user-agent; bh=x4/UX/+0OckpwsKnD2ynBuxjP9MzvRl3IYsC6uWrPpY=; b=pS8vHm3y3hbaSzA67av3Hi/3gJRuFnOsrTajX7DIT36AwoeXv4g3VD18AQ9zlsWcab 6pP7D5DT8yyuxttLVw0L9eWPscXohx5TisZT2G6U9yHArzKTSQ36XzQ7OFsfxbSsZzc2 BXup0epWsFxsdiRSAhJ8kwe1985TtN1xipN/D9NO7cgW7N6/SjodRc6U0+0N8Xz9NGM2 Bs2hAj4Lk2GBpBsxn56cBhgMeMHBuSqcp69KJAuYpTH0Fpy80pgtxjJmSy1dhKg1KaIR cnboFrERg+FCIKtUQQHHZYDtvoj2kYs1VD0GIKTbhlLoxgtUSlADWvparGe8gg0N9jEy si6A== X-Google-DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=1e100.net; s=20161025; h=x-gm-message-state:date:from:to:subject:message-id:mime-version :content-disposition:user-agent; bh=x4/UX/+0OckpwsKnD2ynBuxjP9MzvRl3IYsC6uWrPpY=; b=fTnbPVx7X4osRfg5zE0K7DKbeNi5fPBp1KQ0MOjWEaD+FhJyI0GNu2UgWICodVJnfo +S3X9BvC+UKjeoeKPsJV5p73rSrnBiOwUAp1zKUCTo6R/YPcm5Bsdu7A1RtHgzSvTXlQ eWirzjrkHF9EcNwGCUWZjur1EaqyUd1pVbT67e7MbfwUI/X83P8SHzpdX44aLfwD+9gZ kGzfNRbLlN/O/afxJenwk07tXasRTY0OzKN8Plfff/vvkgP+dUw7VzT4OQBkbe5cGKwr KIns3arvZSYdCaoEQdmf4x0v/JV4BT4Ke7H2f7/LxouLii5qOHHR8lDwAGrSigx4r5gq VBIQ== X-Gm-Message-State: AODbwcCCS5JbPcK6MdaBybZtA+mAfmHLYxC0CvV5XURErjbu+SQND891 4NnPe6OlxrkiicW0 X-Received: by 10.129.85.68 with SMTP id j65mr4557417ywb.309.1494416633704; Wed, 10 May 2017 04:43:53 -0700 (PDT) Received: from sigil.instinctive.eu ([2a01:4f8:a0:6025:202::1]) by smtp.gmail.com with ESMTPSA id q20sm305865ywa.70.2017.05.10.04.43.52 (version=TLS1_2 cipher=ECDHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305 bits=256/256); Wed, 10 May 2017 04:43:52 -0700 (PDT) Date: Wed, 10 May 2017 11:43:51 +0000 From: Natasha Kerensikova To: freebsd-ports@freebsd.org Subject: Ada and GNAT maintainership proposition Message-ID: <20170510114351.GA61453@nat.rebma.instinctive.eu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.8.0 (2017-02-23) X-BeenThere: freebsd-ports@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.23 Precedence: list List-Id: Porting software to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 10 May 2017 11:43:55 -0000 Hello, I'm an insignificant FreeBSD user and Ada developer, and over the years I've come to rely a lot of both technologies together. I'm very worried now that I discovered that Ada-related ports no longer have a maintainer. Having thought a lot about it in the past day, I don't have a workable exit strategy for either technology, and I don't want to need one. So the whole point of this e-mail is, what happens now? As far as I can tell, if nobody steps up to take over the maintainership, the ports will eventually be considered dead and be removed. I think I saw ports stay maintainerless for a long while before being dropped, but here we have a lively compiler and a moving standard, so it's likely things will break sooner rather than later. Once a port is broken, even if it's not reported as broken, its days of maintainerless existence are numbered. So, does anyone care? I do, but I mean, besides me? Is there anybody ready to step up and take maintainership and ensure these ports continue to work? (If there is, don't read the rest of the e-mail, it's moot.) I'm afraid there isn't anybody, and that's why I'm asking here whether I can be that somebody. It would be nice there was some way to make an official distinction between standard maintainership and maintainership-by-default-because-I- want-it-to-work-but-I-would-gladly-hand-it-to-anyone-interested. The problem is that Marino's shoes are difficult to fill. I'm basically applying for a position while I have no experience (I only compiled gcc three times in my life), no relevant skill (except reading C), and almost no time. The only thing preventing me from being the most ill-suited person for the role is that I care. Is it enough? I'm used to imposter's syndrome, but taking for example the recent thread https://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-ports/2017-April/108130.html that's already way beyond my league. On top of that, I'm only running recent -RELEASE, I'm not sure I can find a box on which to run -CURRENT, and I don't hope having some -STABLE or older -RELEASE available. That limits quite a bit my testing capabilities. I think I can handle the load of being the contact person for these ports and dealing with the bugtracker and things like that. So if there is anyone reading this with a bit of technical expertise to help but who doesn't want to deal with the communication part of the maintainership, please let me know, so I can volunteer less shakily. So at this point, is there anybody to talk me out of trying to maintain gcc-aux and some of the Ada ports left behind? What is the procedure to ask for maintainership on these? I still haven't fully sketched the exact list of package I would try to claim, but I use daily lang/gcc6-aux, www/aws, devel/florist-gpl, and devel/gprbuild; I occasionally use devel/adacurses and devel/gnatcoll; and I could easy integrate into my workflow lang/adacontrol and lang/asis. I would take some more, going out of my way to test them, but I'll have to think about which ones are within my reach. The gnatdroid and gnatcross ones are almost certainly not. Thanks for your patience, Natasha