# Bringing back deleted ports?



## `Orum (Oct 16, 2019)

I've found some software that I'd really like to use under FreeBSD, and it seems at one time, it was in the ports tree.  However, it looks to have been deleted because _"REASON: Has expired: Broken for more than 6 months."_

So my question is, what's involved in bringing back a port that was once deleted?  I assume I need to get it compiling, set up the dependencies, make sure it works with the default options set on the other ports, etc.  The porter's handbook is a bit...overwhelming for the uninitiated. But, mostly, if I do get it back in the ports tree, am I then the de-facto maintainer for that port indefinitely?


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## msplsh (Oct 16, 2019)

Until you leave it broken for six months


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## userxbw (Oct 16, 2019)

you could learn how to install by source, too.

( I just got done install e16 epplets from source, that are not in ports. )


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## SirDice (Oct 17, 2019)

`Orum said:


> But, mostly, if I do get it back in the ports tree, am I then the de-facto maintainer for that port indefinitely?


Only if you want it. You could set the maintainer to ports@, that will make it an 'orphaned' port with no real maintainer. But as there's no maintainer it's likely to go stale again.


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## `Orum (Oct 17, 2019)

Hrm, okay.  My main concern is time commitment; I don't mind maintaining it but my time can get sucked up for half a year on a project and it certainly won't be my top priority then.

Does the clock start from the date of the maintainer's last commit or from the time when the port first started to fail compilation?  I suspect a lot of the difficulty in maintaining the port depends on how much the up-stream developer is willing to support FreeBSD, too.



userxbw said:


> you could learn how to install by source, too.


Seeing as doing that is (I hope) more than half the work of making it a port, and I believe other people might like to use the software on FreeBSD (as it was a port in the past!), I think I should go the extra mile and make it available to others as a port.  Just need to find the time to sit down and read through the bible that is the porter's handbook.


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