Looking for a clue... where do I start if I want to contribute a patch to a broken port?

[Bradley Giesbrecht]

On Sep 13, 2013, at 7:05 AM, Patrick Doyle wrote:

> I feel like I should have the proper skills to contribute a patch for a broken port, but I am lacking even the first clue as to where to start.
> 
> I just tried installing the gcl (GNU Common Lisp) port and it failed.  Following the instructions on the wiki, I have filed ticket #40468.
> 
> Suppose I wanted to contribute a patch to fix this problem myself.  Where would I start?  Illustrating the amount of my cluelessness:
> 
> 1) Where would I learn how MacPorts builds packages from a portfile?

You might scan this as well:
http://trac.macports.org/wiki/PortfileRecipes


Regards,
Bradley Giesbrecht (pixilla)