Future of (upstream unmaintained) sysutils/autopsy port

[Dylan Leigh]

>From the ports-expiring-soon messages:
> portname:           sysutils/autopsy
> description:        Web-based (graphical) interface to The Sleuth Kit
> maintainer:         ports at FreeBSD.org
> deprecated because: Unmaintained interactive port
> expiration date:    2014-08-20
> build errors:       none.
> overview:           http://portsmon.FreeBSD.org/portoverview.py?category=sysutils&portname=autopsy

I am considering taking maintainership of sysutils/autopsy to
save it. I have used Autopsy before for a forensics course and
have some old saved "cases". The port is already staged and
could be made non-interactive easily.

On the other hand, I strongly discourage anyone from actually
using Autopsy except to read old files/cases.

The cross-platform version is no longer maintained (new version
3 is Windows only) and was last updated in 2010. Even then it
had serious flaws and is less capable than the commandline tools
it interfaces with (sysutils/sleuthkit). I always suggest that
the SleuthKit tools be used directly instead, but there are some
students who are too scared of the commandline and want to use
Autopsy because it provides a GUI.

So there are some good reasons for depreciating it which have nothing
to do with the port itself being unmaintained + interactive.

Is there any policy on keeping ports where upstream is not
maintained and the software itself is depreciated (except to
open and export old files)? Do we still want to keep such a port
in the active tree?


-- 
Dylan Leigh // VU# s4081906 // www.dylanleigh.net