From owner-freebsd-ports@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Jan 11 21:45:05 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-ports@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 37C1016A417 for ; Fri, 11 Jan 2008 21:45:05 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from pauls@utdallas.edu) Received: from smtp3.utdallas.edu (smtp3.utdallas.edu [129.110.10.49]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 205A413C478 for ; Fri, 11 Jan 2008 21:45:05 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from pauls@utdallas.edu) Received: from utd59514.utdallas.edu (utd59514.utdallas.edu [129.110.3.28]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by smtp3.utdallas.edu (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8CB7465504 for ; Fri, 11 Jan 2008 15:45:04 -0600 (CST) Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2008 15:45:04 -0600 From: Paul Schmehl To: FreeBSD Ports Message-ID: <00DB7D8B21D4C5EE984BCE63@utd59514.utdallas.edu> In-Reply-To: <20080111182331.GB1823@soaustin.net> References: <790a9fff0801110834s532a7282lf63061ad2b73acf5@mail.gmail.com> <20080111182331.GB1823@soaustin.net> X-Mailer: Mulberry/4.0.8 (Linux/x86) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Subject: Re: Suggested improvements for ports 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: Fri, 11 Jan 2008 21:45:05 -0000 --On Friday, January 11, 2008 12:23:31 -0600 Mark Linimon wrote: > On Fri, Jan 11, 2008 at 11:10:45AM -0600, Paul Schmehl wrote: >> The porters handbook seems written from the standpoint of a guide more >> than a manual. > > That's something that I was going to work on, um, last year :-) > > We need both. Right now we have this hybrid which isn't a completely > satisfactory solution for either one. > > This is historical; it kind of grew out of an initial short how-to > document, then, as new things were stuffed into the ports infrastructure, > there was no better place to document them. > > The "quick porting" text should turn into a "guide"; the "slow porting" > text should become the reference. > I like this idea. The problem for new porters is that a brief skim of the "how to" leaves out a lot of details that become important once you actually start creating that first port. Perhaps the right way to approach this is a guide that links to a reference doc? The guide covers the basic "rules" (if you're going to do this, do it this way, if you're not going to do that, you need to do this instead) and then the reference provides both links and examples to show how something is done. I agree we shouldn't formalize it too much, but I *do* think some things should be standardized. For example, the default conf file should have a standardized name throughout, either -sample or -dist or -example or something, and that should be followed throughout. -- Paul Schmehl (pauls@utdallas.edu) Senior Information Security Analyst The University of Texas at Dallas http://www.utdallas.edu/ir/security/