Re: Exmh FreeBSD port

> From: Joel Hatton <[email protected]>
> Date: Thu, 27 Jul 2006 00:12:38 +1000
> Sender: [email protected]
> 
> Hi,
> 
> It's been some time since my last post :)
> 
> I've recently converted to using the FreeBSD port on our systems, and I've
> noticed that because the exmh release file isn't updated concurrent to the
> CVS, there isn't a simple way to update a ported version with revisions
> from CVS. Today, I found a way that isn't _too_ awkward and thought it
> might be useful to others.
> 
>     *  check out the revision that you want, usually just the head of the
>     tree (run first command only if the first time) - do this in
>     /var/db/origins so that it will be retained for later
> 
> cvs -d:pserver:[email protected]:/cvsroot/exmh login
> cvs -z3 -d:pserver:[email protected]:/cvsroot/exmh co -P exmh
> 
>     * change into the /var/db/origins/exmh directory and run
> 
> make realsrctar
> 
>     * copy the resulting file exmh-2.7.2.tar.gz into /usr/ports/distfiles
>     and run md5 against this file
> 
>     * edit /usr/ports/mail/exmh2/distinfo, substituting the MD5 checksum
>     with the above
> 
>     * optionally, remove any *.tcl files from the
>     /usr/ports/mail/exmh2/files directory - they are unlikely to be needed
>     now.
> 
>     * in the same directory, I usually edit the remaining two config files
>     and replace [email protected] with a suitable local maintainer eg my own
>     email address
> 
>     * force the install command to install the new (same) version
> 
> portupgrade -f mail/exmh2
> 
> 
> That's it, basically. It would be great if the FreeBSD port could be
> maintained against a periodic snapshot of the CVS tree, but that would
> only work if two conditions are met - the CVS maintainer would need do the
> snapshot and work out a versioning scheme and someone would have to
> maintain the port to suit. I _think_ I might be able to handle the port
> side of things (though I'd have to consult with the current maintainer/s),
> but would the CVS side be possible?

Joel,

Thanks for the recipe. It's really pretty straight forward, but I (and
other) tend to forget that many users are less familiar with CVS and the
ports system, so the way to do this might be a bit beyond them.

I am unsure of how to handle this issue. The best way might be to create
an exmh-devel port which is regularly synced to HEAD while keeping the
exmh port in sync only with releases.

At the moment the exmh port is lacking a maintainer. The long time
maintainer, Bruce Mah, has dropped maintainership as he no longer used
EXMH. (He requires IMAP.) So the "maintainer" is just ports. I submitted
the last update to the port when 2.7.2 was released, and can continue to
do so, but maintaining an exmh-devel port will be just a bit more time
consuming. I see the following requirements:
1. Monitor exmh CVS for changes on a regular basis
2. Roll a tarball when changes seem to justify it (and bump the
   version in a manner we can agree on)
3. Place the tarball in a reliable place from which it can be fetched
4. Update the port and submit it via PR to ports

2-4 are pretty easy and we have a Linux/BSD distribution system which I
could probably arrange to host the tarballs (if SourceForge or some
other host of Brent's choosing is not available). It's the first item
that I fear I would not have time to properly handle.

Would you be willing to volunteer?
-- 
R. Kevin Oberman, Network Engineer
Energy Sciences Network (ESnet)
Ernest O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab)
E-mail: [email protected]			Phone: +1 510 486-8634
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