Bug in ports howto question

[Allan Bowhill]

On  0, Roman Neuhauser <neuhauser at bellavista.cz> wrote:
:# barner at in.tum.de / 2003-10-28 01:43:19 +0100:
:> On Mon, Oct 27, 2003 at 04:07:08PM -0800, kosmos wrote:
:> > On Mon, Oct 27, 2003 at 11:36:48PM +0100, Simon Barner wrote:
:> > > > What is the procedure to submit a new port when you don't have access to
:> > > > a dedicated and highly-visible Freebsd machine on the internet?
:> > > 
:> > > You have to configure sendmail (or any other MTA of your choice) to use
:> > > a proper mail server (e.g your ISP's) as a smarthost/mailrelay. Perhaps
:> > > at least a reference to the according sendmail documentation should be
:> > > added to the send-pr man page.
:> > 
:> > Yes, I tried installing a simpler MTA this morning.
:> > 
:> > I think it's asking too much to require sendmail configuration 
:> > expertise from contributing porters. Sendmail configuration is
:> > normally relegated to sysadmins that specialize in it.
:
:    then use a different MTA, one with proper documentation,
:    configuration helpers, or digestible config file formats. there's
:    plenty of them in ports. qmail bundled documentation contains
:    precise description of steps required to produce a nullclient
:    configuration, as does postfix documentation.

Thanks. I educated myself on this with the help of Simon Barner, who
is doing documentation for the handbook on this problem. And it _is_
a problem.

:> > The skill sets are mutually exclusive.
:
:    aha. you can't possess skill in both skiing and driving. the skill
:    sets are mutually exclusive. eh?

Yep. Skiiing is not driving, and driving is not skiiing.
They require mutually exclusive skill sets.

:> > > > I wonder how many people just give up trying.
:> > > 
:> > > Good question. Every single volunteer giving up is a pity.
:> > 
:> > Yep. It happens and nobody is aware of it. The ports collection doesn't 
:> > really benefit from decreased access for contributors.
:
:    is it that hard to have send-pr(1) save the PR in file instead of
:    sending it out, and attach it to a mail in your favorite graphical MUA?
:    you *are* able to reach @freebsd.org, after all.

As a matter of fact, that's what I did. And it really screwed things up.

My favourite graphical MUA (or someone's MUA) inserted quote characters
in the PR, which mangled it. Then I tried to submit an attachment as an
update to it, which got mangled by my favorite MUA, but accepted by
GNATS. Then I sent in a uuencoded webmail attachment as a second update
which seemed to work, at least if you remove the leading spaces. 

This is a problem, becuase the PR was a new port. Now nobody will touch
the port becuase it looks too hard to deal with. So it will probably sit
in GNATS for 6 months, until someone takes it upon themselves to clean
it out. Then, I guess I can re-submit it.

-- 
Allan Bowhill
abowhill at blarg.net

You have the body of a 19 year old.  Please return it before it gets
wrinkled.