Re: upstream (was: Re: sysutils/xen* clang patches for review)

[Alistair Crooks <agc%pkgsrc.org@localhost>]

On Sat, Mar 30, 2013 at 04:40:55PM +0000, David Holland wrote:
> I have been thinking that it might be a good idea to set up,
> explicitly under the auspices of netbsd and pkgsrc, a place to keep
> and maintain otherwise neglected upstream versions of third party
> software. I don't anticipate these versions would get noticeably more
> attention than the same software currently gets in pkgsrc; but there
> are a number of advantages over accumulating the same patches in
> pkgsrc:
>    - because they'd be actual trees, merging patches from elsewhere
>      and so on is much easier;
>    - if someone wants to become upstream, they can start straight from
>      our version without needing to fuss about or separate
>      pkgsrc-specific patches;
>    - non-pkgsrc users can get up to date versions, which is
>      particularly important when there are security fixes;
>    - in the long run we'll probably be able to share the maintenance
>      effort with other projects, particularly debian.
> 
> and relative to having one developer maintain private patchkits, or
> stuffing the tree on sourceforge or github, there's the big advantage
> that any of us can commit, and that the repository is backed by the
> momentum of the whole pkgsrc community; things don't get derailed if
> one person loses interest or gets hit by a bus.
> 
> This is not free to set up; but I think it's worth applying our
> resources to. What do people think?

Excellent idea - I love it!

There are certain issues that need to be discussed further, but I think
the principle is exactly right.

Thanks,
Alistair