FreeBSD ports which are currently scheduled for deletion

perryh at pluto.rain.com perryh at pluto.rain.com
Wed Feb 8 11:11:20 UTC 2012


Doug Barton <dougb at freebsd.org> wrote:
> On 02/08/2012 02:12, perryh at pluto.rain.com wrote:
> > linimon at freebsd.org wrote:
> >> portname:           graphics/vrml2pov
> >> description:        Convert VRML files to POVRay source
> >> maintainer:         ports at FreeBSD.org
> >> status:             BROKEN
> >> deprecated because: unfetchable
> > This seems to be a ports-infrastructure problem, rather than a
> > problem in the vrml2pov port. 
> No, it's a "No one cares enough about this port to step forward
> and maintain it" problem.

Er, as of a few hours ago (when I tried it), the URL in the distfile
link on vrml2pov's download page *exactly* matched the URL that the
port tries to fetch.

This does not appear to be a case of the distfile having been moved
and the port not having caught up:  the port is using exactly the
same URL to (try to) fetch the distfile as any human would, but it
works for the human because browsers understand redirections.

The only reason the port doesn't fetch is that the infrastructure
doesn't handle that kind of URL properly.  Given that, why would
it not make more sense to fix the broken ports infrastructure --
thereby also covering any number of other and/or future similar
cases -- rather than "fixing" this one port that is not actually
wrong?

> > The infrastructure needs to handle redirections.
>
> That's arguable, but once again it's an issue that no one has
> stepped up to fix.

Likely because it would involve grubbing around in bsd.port.mk,
which only portmgr@ is allowed to touch :)


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