startupitem.inetdcompat or newbie base hacking!

[markd at macports.org]

I think it would be desirable to have a startupitem that supports
inetdcompatibility in MacPorts.  It seems to me it wouldn't be that hard
since the heavy lifting was already done in MP 1.2.  So I've hacked the
portstartupitem.tcl file for some new startupitems and I want to test it
so I tried replacing the current copy in ${prefix} with the modified file
but it isn't recognizing my new variables.  What is the proper way to test
a new portstartupitem.tcl file?

Mark