Call for feedback on a Ports-collection change

[Brad Davis]

Why not start small and move the distinfo file into the Makefile? (This
follows the path the pkg-comment went) This would be fairly easy to
implement IMHO and not quite as radical as the change your suggesting.


Regards,
Brad Davis

On Thu, Jan 08, 2004 at 07:49:25PM -0500, Garance A Drosihn wrote:
> I have been pondering a possible change for the way the ports
> collection is done.  I've done a little exploration into the
> idea, but I thought I'd ask for more feedback before sinking
> more time into it.  I believe I have someone who would do much
> of the actual work for this change, so I think I can make it
> happen, but I want to know if the FreeBSD ports project would
> be interested in this idea if I come up with some working
> version.
> 
> To keep this as a "doable" project, I also have a fairly
> modest goal:  Further reduce the inode-count of the ports
> collection.  That's it.  There are many things which could
> be done as a follow-on to this, but that's all I want to
> try for right now.
> 
> The method is also pretty modest.  The only thing that makes
> this a big project is the need to do it across the entire
> ports collection, and without causing any disruption.
> 
> What I want to do is create one new file per port, and then
> move almost all the other files into that new file.  Ideally
> each port would end up with just two files.  The Makefile,
> and this new file (some ports might also need a Makefile.inc
> file).  Especially as disks get ever-larger, I think we're
> better off with fewer-but-larger files, instead of a larger
> number of tiny files.
> 
> I would also write a single simple program, which knows how
> to find the correct info for any given purpose.  Thus, the
> format of the file should not be important.  The program
> would know what to do for both "old-style" and "new-style"
> ports, so we don't have to convert the entire collection
> at once.  I think the easiest and clearest way to implement
> this would be one C program, and not 800 lines of /bin/sh
> commands and deep make-magic.
> 
> Does this seem like a reasonable project for me to pursue?
> Does it conflict with other projects which are already in
> the works to do a similar restructuring?  I wouldn't want
> to start this project if no one thinks it is worth doing.
> 
> [This message is BCC'ed to FreeBSD-arch, but I expect the
> discussion to happen on FreeBSD-ports]
> 
> -- 
> Garance Alistair Drosehn            =   gad at gilead.netel.rpi.edu
> Senior Systems Programmer           or  gad at freebsd.org
> Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute    or  drosih at rpi.edu
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