github: handmade vs autogenerated distibution

[Yasuhiro KIMURA]

Hello.

From: Sergei Vyhenski <svysh.fbsd at gmail.com>
Subject: github: handmade vs autogenerated distibution
Date: Thu, 14 Dec 2017 23:43:51 +0300

> Do you think that explicit MASTER_SITES instead of USE_GITHUB (thus
> using H-tarball) here contradicts to some rules of good stile?
> 
> Do you think that fighting with A-tarball is always necessary?

I'm a maintainer of www/tdiary and it uses H-tarball because following
steps are necessary to create source tree equivalent to H-tarball.

1. Checkout https://github.com/tdiary/tdiary-core.git
2. Checkout https://github.com/tdiary/tdiary-theme.git and put
   everything into 'theme' sub-directory of step 1.
3. Genarate doc/*.html from doc/*.md by using Markdown-to-HTML
   converter.

So if I use USE_GITHUB in this port,

* I need to use complex way described in "5.4.3.1. Fetching Multiple
  Files from GitHub" of Porter's Handbook.
* Markdown-to-HTML converter have to be added to BUILD_DEPEND.

But if I use H-tarball Makefile and build process get much simpler
because

* Simple fetching archive and extracting it way can be used.
* Markdown-to-HTML converter can be forgot in build process.

So I think there are definitely some cases that using H-tarball is
preferable.

Regards.

---
Yasuhiro KIMURA