Hello, The issue with unmaintained ports is they are un maintained due to lack of interest, upstream is dead, file can't be found, and they are better off removed and then added again once interest is there. I maintain www/Hiawatha because I use it and the version that was there was very old. So since I know Hiawatha isn't a well used web server compared to nginx updates don't have to be done immediately. But a few of my first ports were programs that taught me how to do it and I never used them again, and that's when you let others continue the work which makes it easier when the base is there rather than a new port. I hope one day we will have a system in place for perl python modules instead of 5k of those but I can't complain if I don't try when I'm more than capable of doing so, saying that gives some room for improvements
Chris -------- Original Message -------- On Sep 18, 2023, 10:46 AM, Morgan Aldridge wrote: > On Mon, Sep 18, 2023 at 9:17 AM Christoff Humphries wrote: > ------- > Original Message ------- > On Monday, September 18th, 2023 at 1:04 PM, Stuart > Henderson [email protected]> wrote: > > > > > > On 2023/09/18 13:34, > Stuart Henderson wrote: > > > > > On 2023/09/18 12:27, Christoff Humphries > wrote: > > > > > > > Hello all. > > > > > > > > Is there a way I can find > ports that are abandoned, need help, or > > > > otherwise are things I can > contribute to? Preferably is there a way I > > > > can discern this > information without bugging people like posting on > > > > this mailing list? > > > > > > > > > Selfishly, there are no packages I could use on OpenBSD > (outside of > > > > the pentesting ones that the SecBSD folks are working on > that will > > > > hopefully be pushed upstream someday [I'm a pentester, > too]), so I > > > > don't have an vested interest in ports I need on the > system. I do > > > > appreciate that Qt 6 and Qt 6 httpserver are included in > -current > > > > ports (which I tested and work great!). > > > > > > > > > Thanks in advance. I helped with ports long ago but that was 20 years > > > > > ago. > > > > > > https://portroach.openbsd.org/the openbsd ports mailing-list > [email protected]>.html > > > is a good place to look for outdated > unmaintained ports. > > > > > > (also: sometimes a port is outdated just > because nobody got > > round to it, but sometimes there's a good reason - > it's often > > helpful to check cvs log and the ports@ archive before > starting > > on an update, especially if it's a complicated one). > > > > > > I'll make a comment though. If a port is long abandoned then there's > > > a > fair chance that nobody else particularly cares about it, randomly > > > > updating such ports that you don't particularly care about either means > > > > that you're doing work, and asking someone else to do work to review, > > > > for something that maybe nobody really wants/needs. So it is probably > > > > better to try to find things which are actually of interest to you. > > I > appreciate the advice and guidance. I understand it is best to work > on > things you have a vested interest in, but that doesn't apply to me > but > wanted to help anyway (helping where short-handed/not enough folks > to work > on things). > > Right now it sounds like helping with ports would be a > pointless > venture for me. I'll do more digging to see if there is still > > somewhere that needs help. I have all the programs I need. I'm not a > committer and only maintain a few smaller ports (some of them personal that > haven't been accepted into the tree), but -- toward Stuart's point regarding > updating stale ports requiring extra work from reviewers -- even > non-committers can test & provide feedback on ports. Such reviews don't count > as official 'OKs' and the responsibility that entails, but are generally > appreciated by portera as additional confirmation that things are working > correctly across environments/platforms, can help them attain or retain > visibility for their ports/updates (esp. when sending followup 'pings'), and > are certainly a good way to familiarize yourself with OpenBSD development > processes and documentation. I've learned a ton just from subscribing to > ports@ and following along when there are ports/updates I'm interested in, > even if I usually don't get to test many of them as I'd like. Morgan
