Ports that don't run on !i386

[Christian Weisgerber]

When I pick up submissions for updates to unmaintained ports I do
a test build and install.  Sometimes I also do a minimal test run.
And sometimes the port will not run on my -CURRENT/alpha, which I
use for that work.  A good many of those cases are very likely due
to the port not working on alpha (and probably neither on several
other of our !i386 platforms).

What should I do?

"Debug it and fix it!"  Sorry, but I have neither the time nor the
inclination to hunt this down for arbitrary ports I don't care for.

I can bounce the update back to the submitters, who will probably
give an apologetic shrug and point out that they in turn have only
i386 boxes.  And chances are, the port is already broken for alpha
and the update won't change this.  Vetoing updates will penalize
i386 users, but not fix the problem elsewhere.

I can slap a NOT_FOR_ARCHS=alpha on it, but that sounds too final.
Nobody it going to try to fix a port once it is declared not to
run.  Besides, it's likely that there are more architectures affected.

So far I've simply gone ahead and committed the update.  I've been
wondering whether I should send a heads-up "port xxx/yyy doesn't
run on alpha" somewhere.  Probably nobody will care, but it would
be nice to register that bit of information somewhere.  I could
send a PR, but that will only go ignored and turn stale.

So what should I do?

-- 
Christian "naddy" Weisgerber                          naddy at mips.inka.de