Re: FreeBSD ports community is broken [port building configuration notes]

It seems that the ports developers have a tool that they would like
everyone to use, while members of the wider community want choice.

Context
For my part I appreciated Hubbard's pkg_* tools.  Later pkg* and the ports
infrastructure underwent substantial change.  After a few years pkg and the
ports infrastructure settled down, improving the build flow.  The ports
infrastructure and maintainers' Makefiles enable the task of building
applications tremendously simple.  Though I've often cursed the constant
additions to the ports infrastructure (/usr/ports/Mk, Makefile syntax,
pkg), the improvements are accessible, understandable and substantially
transparent.  This is a better end-user experience.

Poudriere adds another layer to the pkg -> ports infrastructure -> Makefile
flow.  Which is ok, but the changes are often opaque and near impossible
for end-users to change.  portmaster shell isn't easy to navigate but it is
a simple tool that fits the needs of very many builders.

The end-user should be the topic of focus and keeping them engaged and
using the FreeBSD platform with 'easy to build applications' the objective
which leads to advocacy and growth.

History
As a newbie I used the packages that were available in FreeBSD 2.2.8 which
flourished my use of "the system".  Over time I realised that the ports
maintainer's option choices didn't reflect my needs.  Now I have 490
changes to the ports options and modified 233 ports' Makefiles and files/.
This customisation is based, in priority order: security, features,
performance. So for me the ports system is fantastic, without it, it would
be impossible to maintain the 2400+ ports that I use on our servers.


An expectation that only packages should be used by our wider community is
a false assumption for anything other than novice personal use.  Changing
the ports infrastructure so that a build requires poudriere is wrong and as
we're seeing divisive.  The PR's are also a cause for hesitancy (see ref
below)

Regards, Dewayne

Ref:
1.
https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/buglist.cgi?bug_status=__open__&list_id=672566&query_format=advanced&short_desc=ports-mgmt%2Fpoudriere&short_desc_type=allwordssubstr
https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/buglist.cgi?bug_status=__open__&list_id=672566&query_format=advanced&short_desc=ports-mgmt%2Fpkg&short_desc_type=allwordssubstr