Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Wed, 31 May 2017 12:31:10 -0600
From:      Adam Weinberger <adamw@adamw.org>
To:        Per olof Ljungmark <peo@intersonic.se>
Cc:        FreeBSD Ports <freebsd-ports@FreeBSD.org>
Subject:   Re: The future of portmaster [and of ports-mgmt/synth]
Message-ID:  <9499F327-172A-4E04-B446-05EE5F08CC51@adamw.org>
In-Reply-To: <d8ba380d-50e7-c110-d3e4-d12c718c7144@intersonic.se>
References:  <589B133C-0175-4DD2-8847-5A3E0E697B36@dsl-only.net> <20170530200629.GA10517@lonesome.com> <b0af0ae5-74fc-b932-5d4a-3697c5d3e666@intersonic.se> <20170530215306.GB11098@lonesome.com> <CAN6yY1stP9iFs5in-J4VGqLP88p_CEcykerDNePxm9490GiG4w@mail.gmail.com> <d8ba380d-50e7-c110-d3e4-d12c718c7144@intersonic.se>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
> On 31 May, 2017, at 11:28, Per olof Ljungmark <peo@intersonic.se> =
wrote:
>=20
>=20
>=20
> On 2017-05-31 02:10, Kevin Oberman wrote:
>> On Tue, May 30, 2017 at 2:53 PM, Mark Linimon <linimon@lonesome.com =
<mailto:linimon@lonesome.com>> wrote:
>>    On Tue, May 30, 2017 at 11:46:46PM +0200, Per olof Ljungmark =
wrote:
>>    > Hello, I have not followed this thread before but just wanted to =
say
>>    > that I use portmaster extensively, it works for us and I would =
miss
>>    > it if it went.  Are there actually plans to retire it?
>>    To reiterate the status:
>>      * some extensive changes to the ports framework are coming;
>>      * these will require large changes to all the port upgrade =
tools;
>>      * no one has stepped forwards to offer to do the work for =
anything
>>        other than poudriere AFAIK.
>>    If no one does the work, at the time the large changes come, the
>>    other tools will break.
>>    People have been wanting subpackages (aka flavors) for many years;
>>    IIUC these are parts of the changes that are coming.
>>    Someone needs to step forwards and say "yes, I will do the work."
>>    mcl
>> Since portmaster is still popult and since the only solutions that =
looks to be available in the near term are pouderiere or raw make, =
neither terribly viable for many, I will look into updating portmaster =
to deal with 'flavors'. This looks fairly straight forward and I my have =
the sh capability to manage it. (And then again, I am far from a great =
shell person, so I may well be wrong.) I have looked at Doug's script =
and it is pretty readable, but writing may require help.
>> Can someone point me where to look for documentation on flavors? I =
have poked around the wiki, but to no avail. Unless there is =
documentation on what needs to be done, doing it will be hopeless and =
waiting for the packaging system to updated means portmaster WILL be =
broken for some period of time.
>=20
> Let me just say that I would really, really appriciate if we could =
keep such a simple tool. Why does it suit us? Because we have a limited =
number of systems, and they are all different meaning that we custom =
build for almost every task. Portmaster makes very easy to build what we =
need on each host. Yes, it brakes sometimes but it is not that hard to =
figure out how to get around.

I want to reiterate that nobody is taking portmaster away from you. It =
simply has not been actively developed for years. In all likelihood, =
somebody will patch portmaster eventually. Poudriere is a safer, more =
capable tool than portmaster, and it's better to migrate when there's no =
immediate time pressure or breakage.

The changes are not about to drop. Portmaster is not going to stop =
working tomorrow. We are bringing it up now so that you have time to =
consider migrating to poudriere or synth. If your system(s) and workflow =
make poudriere a viable option, we want to encourage and help you to =
migrate while there's no time pressure.

Sending emails to this list about why you prefer portmaster doesn't =
change the underlying problem, though: portmaster will only be long-term =
viable if somebody actively develops it again.

# Adam


--=20
Adam Weinberger
adamw@adamw.org
https://www.adamw.org




Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?9499F327-172A-4E04-B446-05EE5F08CC51>