Request Maintainer for specific apps

[dtantono (dtantono)]

Hi I am just curious that how to request maintainers/somebody to make apps even for beta or dev version to be available on macports? because I only find this one (​https://ports.macports.org/statistics/faq/) Please advise. Thanks

[ryandesign (Ryan Carsten Schmidt)]

That URL is for frequently asked questions about statistics; doesn't seem relevant to your question.

You can't request somebody maintain something. People volunteer to maintain what they want to maintain.

If a port does not exist, you can file a ticket requesting it, or if you want any other changes made to a port, you can file a ticket for that. However that relies on someone else volunteering to do the work. Alternately, you could submit a pull request with your suggested changes.

We typically offer stable versions of software in MacPorts. Sometimes we offer a newer alpha, beta, RC, or development version in an accompanying -devel port. For example, the minivmac port offers the latest stable version while the minivmac-devel port offers the latest non-stable version. Sometimes we have multiple ports for different versions. For example, php74 and php80 are for stable versions 7.4 and 8.0 respectively while php81 currently offers the version 8.1 alpha. Decisions can be made on a case by case basis as to which one of those possibilities, if any, is employed.

[ryandesign (Ryan Carsten Schmidt)]

I see that you've now filed dozens of tickets requesting the addition of ports for software, most of which seem to be macOS applications which can already be installed via a disk image available from the developers. So I suggest you use that method to install them.

Adding desktop apps to MacPorts, especially ones that have many dependencies, is non trivial and can take days of effort. They can also be non trivial to update and keep running. Several of the apps you requested, like Firefox, Thunderbird, and VirtualBox, were at one point in MacPorts in some form, but had stopped working, been unusable for years, and were ultimately removed after nobody stepped up to fix the problems. Probably some maintainers such as myself aren't motivated to put in the considerable effort to keep these types of software working in MacPorts because an alternative already exists: get the installer from the developers and use that.

In case it's not obvious, in MacPorts we don't typically create ports that just download a disk image and copy the compiled application to the Applications folder. Instead, our goal is to compile software from source (and then distribute the result to users as a binary if possible). Most of the software available in MacPorts cannot simply be downloaded as a compiled macOS application or library from its developers; instead, users would need to compile it from source manually, so by using MacPorts, users save themselves that effort.

If you are truly interested in having all these applications available in MacPorts and would be willing to put in the effort to create the ports that compile them from source, we would of course welcome your contributions. If you need help in writing such portfiles, look through the ​Guide, look through the source code of our ​other Portfiles, and ask questions on the ​macports-dev mailing list.