HOWTO: Get started, gain macports-foo, make bad first impression

[Daniel J. Luke]

On May 2, 2008, at 7:45 AM, Jay Levitt wrote:
>> If it's for a port that currently doesn't have a maintainer, it  
>> would be great if you would be willing to maintain the port!
>
> What sort of commitment is involved in being a maintainer?  I have a  
> sordid history of

A maintainer should test and update the port in a timely fashion (if  
your port is really popular, often people will submit diffs for this  
for you) and take some time to try to help people who have problems  
with the port (if you maintain a port people who have problems with it  
will probably open tickets and assign or CC you on them - 90% of the  
time the problem with be something wonky with their machine, but 10%  
of the time it will be a bug in the port ... ).

Of course if you don't know the answer to a problem, that's OK too.  
People on the mailing list can usually help.

> That said, I'll be happy to volunteer as a "good god, I must be  
> better than no maintainer at all" type maintainer when I find bugs.


If you're not really interested in sticking around with a port, it's  
great to submit patches to fix issues that you fine. If the port is  
for something that you use and/or something that you're interested in,  
please consider becoming the maintainer (and yes, anyone interested in  
maintaining a port is better than the port having no maintainer).

--
Daniel J. Luke
+========================================================+
| *---------------- dluke at geeklair.net ----------------* |
| *-------------- http://www.geeklair.net -------------* |
+========================================================+
|   Opinions expressed are mine and do not necessarily   |
|          reflect the opinions of my employer.          |
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