Bug in ports howto question

[Simon Barner]

[ Full quoted and added questions@ so that others can also profit.

Please let me know if this bothers you, but since this is on-topic and
there are no private things in your message I suppose there should be
no problem. ]

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.
> The skill sets are mutually exclusive.
> 
> On the other hand, I did a bit of research and looked at the ports 
> for ssmtp and fetchmail.
> 
> ssmtp is scaled for personal use. Configuration is pretty easy 
> although the man page doesn't entirely document the setup options. 
> 
> fetchmail works fine, but the tk configuration interface (fetchmailconf)
> is broken.
> 
> It would actually be pretty nice to have a couple of simple config file 
> examples documented in the porter's handbook for these two utilties, so 
> ports contributors aren't left out in the cold when they have something
> ready to go.

Or just have sendmail config files for the most common cases, e.g. isps
mail server as smart host (with and without asmtp), etc.

> > form back online (the former one has been disabled since the GNATS
> > system was heavily spammed).
> > 
> > > 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.
>  
> > > So, what address or mailing list should a new port be sent to if you 
> > > can't use send-pr? Should this be documented in the porter's handbook?
> > 
> > IMHO the best solution is to fix your mailing system. If you can't help
> > it you could try and post your patch to ports at freebsd.org, but I wonder
> > whether that list will reject your mail, too. Aside from that the
> > preferred way of submitting a bug report/patch is send-pr.
> > 
> 
> I did try submitting a port recently, and couldn't get it submitted
> using send-pr. So I sent it to freebsd-bugbusters at freebsd.org with 
> a plea for help. Some nice person forwarded it for me, but now it 
> lies in the bug tracking system, mangled by extraneous characters 
> picked up in the mail forwarding process.
> 
> I would really like to try resubmitting it with my new mail setup,
> but I am not sure whether I should do this if it already has a tracking
> number, and is in the system already.
> 
> Do you have any recommendations?

If you have the PR #, just look it up here:
http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi

If you don't, you'll have to use this one here:
http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr-summary.cgi?query

There is an email link at the bottom of the PR which can be used to
reply to a PR. If you have recieved the confirmation email from the
GNATS system btw., you can just reply to that email in your email
program.

In case you cannot reply to your original PR, just submit a new one.
Please don't forget to ask to close the original one in order to keep
the database clean (Too late, anyway! But every PR counts ;-)

Simon
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 187 bytes
Desc: Digital signature
Url : http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-questions/attachments/20031028/05a1597f/attachment.bin