ports/45613: make update doesn't

[Mark Linimon]

> What you're saying is that there is someone directly responsible for
> maintaining pine (for example) on FreeBSD, but there is nobody
> responsible for maintaining /usr/ports?
>
> I find that notion deplorable.

He's saying exactly the following, and no more: that some person
(a volunteer) has said that he or she would look after pine; and that
no single individual (volunteer) has said that she or he would look
after the entirety of /usr/ports.  That much, and no more.

Of course, even if one single person wanted to do that, they'd find
themselves faced with a large task of getting everyone onto the
exact same page that they were on.  The task would doubtless
quickly turn insurmountable (and flameworthy).

Any FreeBSD user is able to file Problem Reports (PRs) against
specific bugs in the ports system.  A small group of individuals
(volunteers) has indicated interest in working with these PRs
to try to incorporate them into the codebase to fix problems.

That's it.  There is No Man Behind The Curtain.  There is no
commercial entity.  No one is paid.  Yes, there is the occasional
exception when a commercial business, a government organization,
or some other entity, pays someone to create or maintain code that
goes into FreeBSD or this kind of software in general, but it's the
exception rather than the rule.

To reiterate: FreeBSD is a cooperative anarchy.  There is no "They".
There are no shadowy figures from the X-Files.  You don't need
to call in Sherlock Holmes to search for forensic evidence.

Executive Summary: There Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens.

Now, as it turns out, there are several folks who have volunteered
to be on the "portmgr" team by expressing an interest in fiddling
with the ports system framework.  Kris is one of them -- and from
personal experience I know he works on a lot of stuff.  But he,
and they, are no more obligated to work on the framework at
any given time, than they are obligated to wear berets and
trenchcoats while riding roller coasters and dancing to polka
music.

The key word is "volunteer".  I am consistently puzzled by
why this concept seems so elusive.

Do you think I'm ragging on you personally?  I hope you
don't take it that way -- this rant isn't meant to be anything
personal.  It's just that I see this Assumption Creep happen
all the time in Open Source projects and it just makes me
go cross-eyed.

On FreeBSD, people work on what they wanna work on.
That's all there is to it.  If it gives them a good warm feeling
to take responsibility for some part of the system, more power
to them.

But that's about all they're guaranteed to get out of it.

Mark Linimon