[nycbug-talk] Adopt a FreeBSD Port

[Steven Kreuzer]

Hey Guys-

As I am sure alot of you already know, the FreeBSD Ports and Packages  
Collection offers an easy and consistent way of installing software  
packages on FreeBSD and is a very important section of the operating  
system as a whole.

Currently, there are 4333 ports with MAINTAINER set to  
ports at freebsd.org, which means that no one is currently actively  
maintaining them. Out of these ports, 371 (or 8.56%) are out of date.

A list of ports that need some love and attention can be found at  
http://beta.inerd.com/portscout/ports@freebsd.org.html

If you see a port listed that you use, consider adopting it. If its  
out of date, consider updating it. Its a pretty simple way to start  
contributing back to FreeBSD. All that is really required to adopt a  
port is to change the MAINTAINER line in the makefile, create a  
unified diff and the submit a PR for that patch at http:// 
www.freebsd.org/send-pr.html

A good place to get familiar with how the ports system works is to  
browse through the FreeBSD Porter's Handbook which you can find at  
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/porters-handbook/

Another good read is Michael W. Lucas's article on Modifying a Port  
which can be found at http://www.onlamp.com/lpt/a/574

Of course, this list is also a very good place to find answers to  
your questions as well, so feel free to post them.

So, get to work ;)

-Steven