From owner-freebsd-ports@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Dec 11 23:53:16 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 2C7B716A4CE for ; Sat, 11 Dec 2004 23:53:16 +0000 (GMT) Received: from obsecurity.dyndns.org (CPE0050040655c8-CM00111ae02aac.cpe.net.cable.rogers.com [69.194.102.143]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id F0E3E43D46 for ; Sat, 11 Dec 2004 23:53:15 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from kris@obsecurity.org) Received: by obsecurity.dyndns.org (Postfix, from userid 1000) id 1EF4054103; Sat, 11 Dec 2004 16:00:11 -0800 (PST) Date: Sat, 11 Dec 2004 16:00:11 -0800 From: Kris Kennaway To: ports@FreeBSD.org Message-ID: <20041212000009.GB86390@xor.obsecurity.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="i9LlY+UWpKt15+FH" Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.1i Subject: "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: Sat, 11 Dec 2004 23:53:16 -0000 --i9LlY+UWpKt15+FH Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline At the moment, too many of our ports have no maintainer. This means that there's no-one available to fix problems that occur with the ports or to deal with user support questions. In some cases this is probably because no-one actually uses the software in question any more, but in other cases it's probably just because no-one in the user community has come forward to take over. 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. e.g. * Updating the port when a new version is released * Pushing local changes back upstream to the original authors * Fixing port errors reported by the package build cluster * Dealing with user support requests, at least by pointing them to the upstream developers for cases where it's not clearly a FreeBSD port-specific problem. * Evaluating PRs submitted against the port * Responding to change requests in a timely manner (2 weeks). * ... Can someone write up such a document? Kris --i9LlY+UWpKt15+FH Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.6 (FreeBSD) iD8DBQFBu4oGWry0BWjoQKURAkXyAKCt7G6GWYq0E8tgYbP162/B1uCWqACdFSIR h07tRV2+G+ts05kkcNinWIo= =4F0w -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --i9LlY+UWpKt15+FH--