Griping about the ports collection (Re: OpenOffice2.0 64Bit ready?)

[Roman Neuhauser]

# kris at obsecurity.org / 2005-09-12 15:34:36 -0400:
> On Mon, Sep 12, 2005 at 08:25:49PM +0200, Roman Neuhauser wrote:
> > # kris at obsecurity.org / 2005-08-11 10:59:42 -0400:
> > > To repeat: what, *precisely*, is missing from the Porters' Handbook
> > > that makes it "useless"?
> > 
> >     You're a ("foreign", non- at freebsd.org) port maintainer, and received
> >     a notification that a PR has been posted for your port. That PR
> >     includes a patch. Identify the part of PH that describes how to get
> >     the patch onto your machine from GNATS.
> 
> Is this really a problem?  The main www.freebsd.org webpage has a link
> for 'view a bug report'.  Also, when you received the notification
> that the PR has been posted (e.g. by someone assigning the PR to your
> non-freebsd.org address, or forwarding the mail), it will have
> included an explicit URL to view the PR.

    First, this omission doesn't make the PH useless, but including
    a bit of text would make it better.

    Second, while you can certainly fetch(1) the url (don't forget to
    add &f=raw), and if the PR contains a single diff, patch(1) will do
    quite a good job of surgeoning it from the blob, it gets bothersome
    in more complicated cases. How do *you* handle this?

    Third, the PH isn't as organized as it could be, especially the "Dos
    and Don'ts" section, which, with its FAQy nature, is a heap of
    useful information whose utility is hampered /because/ it's a heap.
    But I haven't put any xml (yet) where my mouth is, so I'll get off
    my soap box.

-- 
How many Vietnam vets does it take to screw in a light bulb?
You don't know, man.  You don't KNOW.
Cause you weren't THERE.             http://bash.org/?255991