distfiles, please add @freebsd.org

[Julian H. Stacey]

Hi,
Olivier Duchateau wrote:
> 2014-01-28 Julian H. Stacey <jhs at berklix.com>:
> > Hi xfce at FreeBSD.org
> > www/midori/Makefile
> > MAINTAINER=     xfce at FreeBSD.org
> >
> > Suggestion/Request: Please add ftp.freebsd.org to list of distfiles
> > & park a copy there, because I just checked on http://midori.org & they
> > only store latest to download there, no option to download older, which means
> > our ports 10.0-RELEASE tree is already broken, as release ports/ wants
> >
> > midori_0.5.6_all_.tar.bz2
> >
> > & http://www.midori-browser.org/download/source/
> > only offers tar.bz2  ·  0.5.7  ·  1.1 MB
> >
> > So all releases of FreeBSD are currently doomed to be obsolete
> > almost immediately.
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I don't understand your complaint, why add freebsd distfiles directory.
> If you want to download previous and latest versions, real host is
> launchpad.net [1] (this host is piece of shit, when we need to fetch
> tarball).
> 
> [1] https://launchpad.net/midori
> 
> >
> > PS Yes I'm aware of & make fetches there, but it doesnt solve the
> > problem of release.

We have ~ 20,000 ports, (personaly I use about 1,000), shortly after
release I build my personal set, (& other people will build theirs
later when it suits them) & yet just days after release midori
distfile URL is already obsolete & worse no other sites with the
old version of distfiles needed by 10.0-RELEASE/ports/www/midori,
& no search engines offer alternate URLs.

It's acceptable to leave Release & jump to build in current ports,
for each of those (in my case among 1,000) ports in Release that
may be broken, but it a waste of time to issue a release ports tree,
with a midori tree we Know will quickly be deliberately unusable.

The disruption is because midori project is short sighted & Only
offers latest version & prevents access to the older version our
FreeBSD release is issued for.

Compare with something like ghostscript, where lots of sites have
lots of old versions too, so a Makefile from a Release port will
still build, unlike a midori port.

As midori master site is removing distfiles on which release
ports/www/midori is based, ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/distfiles/
should hold a copy of the exact distfile that the RELEASE
ports/www/midori/Makefile requires.

Cheers,
Julian
-- 
Julian Stacey, BSD Unix Linux C Sys Eng Consultant, Munich http://berklix.com
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