Re: OS Images(Linux/etc) in ports tree

On Fri, 28 Jun 2024, Connor Cooper wrote:

> Hello, I am presenting you all with an idea for the bhyve project that involves the ports tree. I've noticed that a lot of VPS providers have their
> own images available for various operating systems and it's relatively easy to use compared to even standalone virtualization systems. Considering the
> existence of FreeBSD and bhyve I also just noticed that the ports tree could be a good potential place for bhyve users to access those images. What is
> the input of the FreeBSD virtualization community regarding this idea? Thanks.
> Best regards,
> Connor
>
>

Hi Connor,

The ports tree welcomes all sorts of software contributions. If you feel
like setting utilities and scripts for providing OS images, you're
certainly free to do so.

As long as you host your code publicly, put an appropriate license on it
and create a ports Makefile, you can submit that through Bugzilla for
inclusion into the ports tree. It's also helpful to submit your ports
Makefile as change diff to the ports tree via Phabricator
(reviews.freebsd.org).

Please keep in mind, that our ports maintainers are all volunteers, so
creating and submitting a new port may take some time.

One last thing, as my "2 cents", because this can quickly halt such
endeavors: please remember to consider any licensing issues related with
the use of any third party OS images. Downloading them as a single person
may be straightforward but creating a means to download in "bulk" may
cause discussions if the creators apply some terms of service or other
legal constraints...

chris