Re: HEADS-UP: Upcoming move of WWW definitions in all ports

On Tue, Sep 06, 2022 at 09:04:10PM +0200, Stefan Esser wrote:
> Am 06.09.22 um 20:31 schrieb Steve Kargl:
> > On Tue, Sep 06, 2022 at 08:09:24PM +0200, Stefan Esser wrote:
> > > PortMgr has just accepted a change that has been in the making for some time:
> > > 
> > > The move of the "WWW:" entries at the end of the ports' pkg-descr files into
> > > the ports' Makefiles in the form of "WWW=" definitions.
> > > 
> > > The WWW lines will be put into the maintainer block, immediately following
> > > the MAINTAINER and COMMENT lines.
> > > 
> > > If there is more than one WWW: line a pkg-descr file, one URL will be
> > > selected to be moved into the Makefile, the other URLs will get a label
> > > "See also:" instead of "WWW:".
> > > 
> > 
> > You've told us the "What" and suggested a "When".  So, what is
> > the "Why?"
> > 
> > % find . -name pkg-descr -maxdepth 3 | wc -l
> >     29110
> > % find . -name Makefile -maxdepth 3 | wc -l
> >     30343
> > 
> > Assuming 90% of the files are touched, 54000 files suffering cosmetic churn?
> 
> The idea to move the WWW entry from the pkg-descr to the Makefile has come up
> multiple times in the past, back in 2015 for the first time that I know of,
> see https://reviews.freebsd.org/D2949.
> 
> The question whether the churn caused by commits to 2 files of nearly all ports
> has been discussed within the PortMgr team for some time. The decision to go
> ahead has now been made, after all prerequisites have been met.
> 
> 
> The WWW field is the only parameter in the INDEX file or in package manifests
> that is not derived from some variable in the ports' Makefiles.
> 
> It has become stale in quite a number of ports over time, one reason might be
> that the pkg-descr files are seldom touched after the initial commit. And many
> of the URLs did not follow the rules laid out in the porters' handbook.
> 
> The most relevant WWW: entry in each pkg-descr file should be in the last line
> (if there are multiple WWW: lines) and this line is currently extracted using
> awk when the INDEX is built. But in fact, many ports have the relevant URL in
> some other line and thus do not get any useful URL in the INDEX.
> 
> Moving the WWW value into the Makefile will make it easier to maintain and test
> whether it is still valid. It removes processing overhead from "make index" and
> it is a chance to select the most relevant entry from multiple URLs in many of
> the pkg-descr files.
> 


Thanks for the explanation.  I had assumed that there
was some motivation, but lacking acccess to the port-mgr
mail archive makes it somewhat difficult to find the
information.
-- 
Steve