Re: Exmh FreeBSD port

Hi,

First, thanks for all your replies - I didn't know if my message would
generate such response! Valdis, forgive me for picking on you to respond
to directly but yours was the last message, and I had to pick someone :)

On Wed, 26 Jul 2006 22:07:08 -0400, [email protected] wrote:
>
>1) I'd not be surprised if most of the big CVS committers are a bit rusty
>on working with CVS branches.
>
>2) I doubt we can only get notifications for commits to HEAD (which would
>mean work on a branch would be silent till the branch got merged again).
>
>Oh well...

I've reflected some more on this overnight, and I've thought of an approach
to the port that might work ok and reduce the workload on the exmh
committers. I'm definitely appreciative of the effort that people like
Chris (who I'm sure underrates his expertise in tcl/tk) have put into exmh,
and I don't want to make any more work for them than absolutely necessary.

My alternative method:

	o leave the current backend of exmh development the same ie major
	releases relatively long-term and static, with ongoing development
	in cvs

	o retain the current mail/exmh2 port and its relationship to major
	exmh version

	o check out the cvs regularly at HEAD (probably the most practical)
	and

	o automate a context diff between the changes in HEAD and the files
	in the major release to generate patch files like in the current
	port eg mail/exmh2/files/patch-lib-folder.tcl

	o commit the port with suitable PORTREVISION and PORTEPOCH numbers
	(of which I know not much, but primarily to keep the PORTVERSION
	in concert with release)

This way, the port could be updated without the need to retrieve a newer
.tar.gz file whenever a change is made in cvs, and no extra effort would
be required on the part of the developers - except maybe some extra queries
to -workers from me occasionally, just before I update the port!

I'm going to bash up a script to produce the patch files, but I'd like
some thoughts on this approach if possible. If creating an exmh-devel port
is appropriate, I'm sure that could be accommodated, even if just by using
the approach I've outlined here.

cheers,
-- Joel Hatton --
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