Bug 199571 - ports-mgmt/portmaster: [change-request] please ban portmaster
Summary: ports-mgmt/portmaster: [change-request] please ban portmaster
Status: Closed Not A Bug
Alias: None
Product: Ports & Packages
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Individual Port(s) (show other bugs)
Version: Latest
Hardware: Any Any
: --- Affects Many People
Assignee: freebsd-ports-bugs (Nobody)
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2015-04-21 01:46 UTC by Walter von Entferndt
Modified: 2015-04-21 15:50 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

See Also:


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Description Walter von Entferndt 2015-04-21 01:46:07 UTC
Rationale: portmaster is a >4000 (!!!) line shell script.  It's common sense that shell scripts are ok for small tasks but quickly become unmaintanable once they grow.

Portmaster should simply do "cd /usr/ports && make help"

Don't laugh I'm serious with this.
Comment 1 Chris Hutchinson 2015-04-21 05:36:10 UTC
(In reply to torsten.eichstaedt from comment #0)
> Rationale: portmaster is a >4000 (!!!) line shell script.  It's common sense
> that shell scripts are ok for small tasks but quickly become unmaintanable
> once they grow.
> 
> Portmaster should simply do "cd /usr/ports && make help"
> 
> Don't laugh I'm serious with this.

Correction; it's a collection of routines. Not unlike that of
a program written in C, or any number of other languages.

I might also add; it works. So what exactly is your beef, again?

--Chris
Comment 2 John Marino freebsd_committer freebsd_triage 2015-04-21 13:58:47 UTC
(In reply to Chris Hutchinson from comment #1)
> I might also add; it works. So what exactly is your beef, again?

Maybe in your universe it works.

Working ports don't have PR lists like this:http://portsmon.freebsd.org/portoverview.py?category=ports-mgmt&portname=portmaster&wildcard=


This port should be banned.  Now without a _REAL_ maintainer, it's well on it's way.
Comment 3 Chris Hutchinson 2015-04-21 15:25:46 UTC
(In reply to John Marino from comment #2)
> (In reply to Chris Hutchinson from comment #1)
> > I might also add; it works. So what exactly is your beef, again?
> 
> Maybe in your universe it works.

For it's intended purpose, it works. At least as well as most
"utilitarian" type ports -- it has it's issues, as do the others.

I wish that the OP had combined this with:
https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=199572
it would have made his case here more coherent. This feels
like a rant, after his expressed experience in the other PR.

The other PR looks like an install, as opposed to an upgrade;
which is what ports-mgmt/portmaster's intended use-case is.

> 
> Working ports don't have PR lists like
> this:http://portsmon.freebsd.org/portoverview.py?category=ports-
> mgmt&portname=portmaster&wildcard=
Several of those are dupes, and most are at least a year old.
> 
> 
> This port should be banned.  Now without a _REAL_ maintainer, it's well on
> it's way.
bdrewery@ was maintaining it up to at least 4 weeks ago.
Are you suggesting I maintain this port, that it might get the
attention it needs. Or will that just make me the scourge of the
committers?

IMHO portmaster is a far better choice for upgrades, than
pkg, it you're building from source. It affords you options
*other* than default. Which pkg doesn't cater well to, if at all.

--Chris
Comment 4 Bryan Drewery freebsd_committer freebsd_triage 2015-04-21 15:50:31 UTC
(In reply to torsten.eichstaedt from comment #0)
> Rationale: portmaster is a >4000 (!!!) line shell script.  It's common sense
> that shell scripts are ok for small tasks but quickly become unmaintanable
> once they grow.
> 
> Portmaster should simply do "cd /usr/ports && make help"
> 
> Don't laugh I'm serious with this.

I'm laughing. Poudriere is what we use to build packages now and is extremely stable and efficient. It is 95% shell script.

The language something is written in is not very relevant usually as long as it works. Portmaster has a lot of issues. I will agree that the structure of the codebase in portmaster is very unmaintainable. I don't see any reason to ban it unless it starts doing things wrong, like Tinderbox does now.

Closing as this is not a constructive ticket.