hacking broken ports

[Simon Barner]

> I was trying to build mplayer tonight, and I ran into a problem with
> net/liveMedia.  The port that I've got calls for the build done on
> 10.24.2003.  This file was unavailable on *any* of the listed mirrors,
> with the closest match being one built on 10.30.2003.  I got around this
> problem by putting the file into /usr/ports/distfiles, and then
> modifying two files in /usr/ports/net/liveMedia; Makefile and distfile.
> I found that there was only on reference to the filename in the
> Makefile, so I changed it, and then I generated an MD5 on the file that
> I had and put it into distfile.  After all of that foolishness mplayer
> built just fine.
> 
> My question is this; am I on the right track, or am I going to screw
> something up if I keep using this slash-and-burn method?  I'm new to
> FBSD (and *NIX), but this method seemed like it'd work.  I'd just hate
> to do something that's going to bite me in the ass later on.

No, this is just the way how ports are updated by their maintainers.
Let me add some additional remarks:

Before you fix/update a port you should check the GNATS data base if
somebody has already released a patch (otherwise it would just be a
waste of your efforts and time):

   http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr-summary.cgi?query

The best thing would be -of course- if you read the Porter's Handbook

  http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/porters-handbook/

and shared your solution with others (i.e. fix the port for you and send
a problem report).

> Also, what do I have to do to the permissions of /dev/dvd so that I can
> open a DVD in userspace.  Right now I have to sudo mplayer to watch a
> movie, and that seems silly.  Thanks.

I suppose /dev/dvd is a symlink to one of your DVD drives. I think
adjusting the group permissions (I believe you need rw for DVDs) for that
device and putting you into the right right group should be fine.

In general, I perfer granting access rights to a user group instead of
running a process as root (even with sudo).

Regards,
 Simon
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 187 bytes
Desc: Digital signature
Url : http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-questions/attachments/20031102/8e42a7ba/attachment.bin