Hi Matthew,
cho...@jtan.com wrote on Sat, May 11, 2019 at 04:18:07PM +0300:
> The question remains but now with a wider audience -
> I've posted a port to the mailing list, what next?
Wait for feedback.
> I'm happy to leave it in the porters' collective lap or begin
> to take on some responsibility myself; I'm just not sure what
> to do with it.
Any of the following may happen next:
a) A ports developer decides the port is useful and mature
and commits it, with or without minor changes.
b) Somebody thinks it is potentially useful but requires
more work. That person will ask you to do specific work
on it and resubmit once you have done that.
c) You get no feedback whatsoever.
d) A ports developer decides the software is inappropriate
for the ports tree for some reason and explicitely says so.
The outcome d) is relatively rare. For you, c) is the least
desirable outcome, and it is *not* rare. It is undesirable
because you won't know the reason:
ca) Maybe nobody really noticed the submission, it simply fell
through the cracks. It might still be a very good port.
cb) Maybe some noticed, but weren't interested personally
and had other things to do. It might still become a port
if somebody becomes interested.
cc) Maybe most who noticed considered it a dubious idea,
but didn't care enough to explicitly oppose it.
In case somebody finally picks it up, explicit opposition
might start being discussed, but that's rare (just like d).
Remeber that testing and committing a port requires time and
effort, and more ports are being submitted than porters have
time to deal with. Even short feedback requires spending some
time.
Personally, i'm in the cb) camp in this case, but that really
doesn't tell you anything useful.
If you submitted a port following the porting guide, all you can
do is wait, then try again after three weeks, after three months,
and after a year, in case you receive no feedback.
> Incidentally it's useful to know that the split between base and ports
> is/can be as distinct between the developers as it is between the
> binaries. Thanks for the effort.
It varies. Some developers are quite active in both areas, for
example espie@, sthen@, jsg@. Some have a clear focus on one but
still contribute regularly to the other, for example ajacoutot@
(ports) or myself (base). Some almost never commit to ports, for
example deraadt@, millert@, jmc@. Some work almost exclusively on
ports, for example landry@. Besides, what developers work on
sometimes changes with time.
Yours,
Ingo
