Need advice from maintainers

[Bill Moran]

In response to Paul Schmehl <pschmehl_lists at tx.rr.com>:

> I am the maintainer for security/barnyard2.  This is an updated version of 
> security/barnyard, which I also maintain.  The version of my port is the 
> current release version, but it has a really irritating problem that is fixed 
> in the current beta version.
> 
> Barnyard2 is a program that parses snort logs and inserts them into a database 
> (mysql or postgresql).  It is supposed to create a placemarker file (called a 
> waldo file) that maintains a record of what logs it has already parsed.  (This 
> is only one way of using the program.  There are others as well.)  The problem 
> in the release version is that it does not read the waldo file when the program 
> is restarted.  So every time you restart barnyard2, it reinserts into the 
> database every alert you still have log files for.  The beta version fixes this 
> problem.
> 
> I have created a port for the beta version and am using it myself, but I know 
> that using beta versions of software is frowned upon.  Should I go ahead and 
> submit this port because it solves this problem?
> 
> If I do, my thinking is that I should adjust the pkg-message file in the 
> existing port to warn the user about the problem and note that the beta version 
> solves it so they might want to consider using that instead.

An option that you did not mention is to take the patch that fixes that
single problem and include as a patch file for barnyard2.  That way it's
not a true beta, it just has that single patch to fix a known problem.

For me, I think that would be the preferred method in this case.

-- 
Bill Moran
http://www.potentialtech.com
http://people.collaborativefusion.com/~wmoran/