"Being a port maintainer" document

Matt Mills matt_mills at btopenworld.com
Mon Dec 13 02:53:55 PST 2004


Kris Kennaway wrote:
> I'd like to put out a general call for people to volunteer to maintain
> our unmaintained ports -- this is a great way for users to "give
> something back" to FreeBSD and help out the project -- but we need
> some form of document we can show them that lists the rights and
> responsibilities of port maintainers, so they have an idea of what's
> expected from them.  The porters' handbook does a good job of
> describing the details of constructing a port, but not the
> higher-level aspects of being a port maintainer.

Obviously, I may be about to ask questions that appear in the document 
in question, but I'll take that risk as there are some ports I could 
maintain.

What skills does a port maintainer need to have? For instance, is it 
enough to be proficient with the software, to have basic system 
administration skills and an understanding of how the ports tree works, 
or is there some programming involved?

I presume the latter as I would guess that the maintainers provide 
patches for ports that do not compile out of the box. I have some very 
basic C/C++ skills but am reluctant to take on maintainership(?) of any 
ports for fear of lack of skill.

-- 
Matt


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