Created attachment 144480 [details] Patch to update the Makefile and distinfo. The port biology/platon has been marked BROKEN due to missing/incorrect distinfo. The attached patch fixes that. The port has already been stagified.
This checksum is already bad. What's it been, 6 days? I think the only solution is to host it somewhere else and let it slowly rot, but at least it can build.
On closer examination, I suspect the issue is caused by the upstream distfile not having a version number and, in fact, the software in question hardly using any discernible versioning at all. In that case, I'd be inclined to say that this port needs a motivated maintainer who is willing to track upstream changes and update the port (e.g. bump PORTVERSION) on a regular basis. If nobody objects, I can host the currently-latest version of the distfile on my own site and add a pkg-message urging/encouraging anyone who uses this port to step up and maintain it.
Nobody is going to object. In fact, I disagree this needs somebody to bump occasionally. That means the port will break all the time until it's bumped again and that's even worse for quarterly branches. I think hosting it away from upstream is the only reasonable solution -- otherwise I'd be inclined to remove the port because upstream is a bad citizen wrt packaging systems. But skip the pkg-message suggestion. It doesn't add anything. Everyone knows unmaintained ports are up for grabs. I would only add a comment in the makefile explaining *WHY* the distfiles have to be hosted elsewhere.
Created attachment 144631 [details] Replacement of earlier patch.
Fair enough, and thanks for your comments. I've replaced the patch, that should do it.
A commit references this bug: Author: marino Date: Sun Jul 13 11:27:45 UTC 2014 New revision: 361671 URL: http://svnweb.freebsd.org/changeset/ports/361671 Log: biology/platon: Unbreak by hosting known distfiles elsewhere The distfiles are regenerated often, too frequently to be suitable for ports. Fonz has decided to host the tarball of a known version to restore this unmaintained port. PR: 191685 Submitted by: Fonz Changes: head/biology/platon/Makefile head/biology/platon/distinfo
Thanks for restoring this port and making it more reliable!