Can I please get some help with my port of dell Racadm? (https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=201799)

Hey there folks.

I mentioned this on the FreeBSD discord (and some of it in my BSDCan talk).  

I’ve had a PR in place to generate a port that basically extracts a single binary and library from the dell Linux RPMs.  Because linux-c7 is going unmaintained, this PR should probably not use the .shar files that are up there.

Yes, .shar files, because this bug is 10 years old, and that was the style at the time.  I wasn’t the original person to open it, that was someone at the Cybersecurity firm Norse.  (I think Adrian Chadd worked there), but dayjob is a very much dell shop and we use it heavily.

I’ve redone the dance with a current version of Racadm, confirmed that this works on a FreeBSD 14.3 machine (packages are not working right now for 15, so can’t test there), but I haven’t updated the PR yet, because after ten years, I don’t understand why I’m putting forth the effort.

This is a package that installs a closed-source tool onto your servers.  I am not sure what restrictions committers would want the port to have.

Desire for this comes up periodically, including for us, and I’m quite sad that I’m maintaining an Ubuntu machine, complete with systemd, to manage our iDracs.

One example of the clamoring: https://freebsd-hackers.freebsd.narkive.com/1yTOsvcA/can-we-please-finally-solve-dell-s-racadm-for-freebsd-advice-needed (7 years ago).  There were comments on the bug asking what can be done a few weeks ago.

I’ve dropped an entry on to my blog about both my experiences, and an FAQ what the differences are about the various racadm/iDrac modes of operation: https://gushi.medium.com/a-story-about-racadm-and-freebsd-95f9beaf3995

That page also tells you how to install racadm under FreeBSD without the port, if you need to, because I want it to be a comprehensive reference.  I need to translate the steps there into “Makefile”, which is just a shell script with weirder formatting.  But I’d really like to see this port/pkg go live.

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Here’s what I need:

1) Can someone please tell me if it makes sense to kill off this bug or start a new one, or if I should just take the hint and let this die?

2) Last I checked, poudriere had some brokenness with the Linuxulator where it would just die and report an unclean exit.  If that’s still broken, can I get someone to acknowledge that that’s a thing and give me a pass?  (It was Kurt Jaeger who told me about the issue).

3) What workflow should I use for my new submissions if I make them?  PR?  Github?  Semafore?

4) I’d love to hear from a port maintainer that has a little bit of understanding about how the Linuxulator works and how Linux ports might be different with regard to shared libraries and the like.  For example, if you’re installing a linux port, you put it in /compat/linux/usr/bin — do you create a symlink into /usr/local/bin as well?  Questions of that nature that aren’t covered by the porter’s handbook, but probably should be.

5) Working 15 packages so I can test there.

Thanks in advance.

-Dan