Adopt an orphaned port project

[T-Daemon]

I'm now struggling on where to find the makefile as it isn't snatched anymore into my port tree.

You can get the files of the port from the FreeBSD git repositories web site. In case of the port in question, the last ports tree including the port would be the 2022Q2 quarterly ports tree. Open the files in a browser (choose 'plain', i.e. Makefile), save files. I suggest to get all files of the port, not only the Makefile, especially the patches under 'file'.

The ports location can be anywhere, a users home directory for example, as long as a updated ports tree is present to use its ports framework.

Can you provide advice on how to restore a port project?

Open a review at https://reviews.freebsd.org, or less preferred by port committers (as I recall), a PR at https://bugs.freebsd.org. In either way there should be a patch attached, even if it's not complete or doesn't work as expected.

We have a port committer here in forums, zirias@, who maybe want to add to the said.

For documentation, I'm sure you are aware of the Porters Handbook, I mention it here just in case.

 

[ioverreact]

I would happily help out but I don't know what I don't know, and I suspect my skill set would be lacking.

My worry is I'd make a mess of things and cause more work for others that know what they're doing.

Is there a bulleted list somewhere of pre-requisit knowledge and/or a tutorial to fill in knowledge gaps for anyone willing to help out?

 

[SirDice]

My worry is I'd make a mess of things and cause more work for others that know what they're doing.

Party at home. Of course you're going to mess up, everyone does, especially at first. Just set up a computer you can mess with, even a virtual machine will do. Play around, destroy, break it, rebuild it, read some more, and try again. It's the only way to properly learn something.

Is there a bulleted list somewhere of pre-requisit knowledge and/or a tutorial to fill in knowledge gaps for anyone willing to help out?

Not really. Because there are sooo many different kind of ports. Some use C, some Go, some LUA, some even a combination of various different languages. Pick something you like and delve into its documentation. See what instructions are needed to actually build a bunch of source code into something a computer understands.

 

[adorno]

Is there a bulleted list somewhere of pre-requisit knowledge and/or a tutorial to fill in knowledge gaps for anyone willing to help out?

The preceding post (and the very first one, although a bit dated by now) pretty much covers all the references you'd need to get started. If you're serious about getting involved with ports, consider subscribing to the freebsd-ports mailing list. It's fairly low volume, but can be helpful if you get stuck.

Besides all that just look around in the ports tree to get a feel for how things are being done, and maybe avoid the more complicated ports (many patches, bespoke logic in the port's Makefile, etc.) when picking your first one to contribute to. Good luck!

 

[BaronBS]

I think that was asked already, but for the love of Beastie, I cannot find it.
How can I list all installed ports that don't have a maintainer?

 

[Charlie_]

r

How can I list all installed ports that don't have a maintainer?

For me it is just a matter of avoiding a (too) heterogenous environment: I chose FreeBSD for servers; then I do not want to maintain Linux desktops at the same time. I would not have chosen FreeBSD as desktops alone if it had not been for the servers.


Yes, it is an example in pkg-query(8)

# List unmaintained packages:
pkg query -e '%m = ports@FreeBSD.org' %o

 

[fraxamo]

This command should do what you want:
pkg rquery -e "%m == 'ports@FreeBSD.org'" %o

 

[BaronBS]

r

This command should do what you want:
pkg rquery -e "%m == 'ports@FreeBSD.org'" %o

Query give me all explicit installed ports and rquery give me all installed ports (including dependencies), is that it?
No, it is not. Rquery search the remote repositories.

 

[fraxamo]

Sorry, misread your original post.
This should work then: pkg query -e "%m == 'ports@FreeBSD.org'" %o

 

[sidetone]

psearch -m ports@freebsd.org will also work for listing unmaintained ports.