PortRequest is Live

If you listened to my recent BSDTalk podcast, you heard me mention PortRequest. Well, it's live! PortRequest is part of the NYCBUG site; Michael Welsh coded it, receiving nothing in compensation. If you visit www.portrequest.org you will be redirected to the actual NYCBUG Portrequest page.

The idea behind PortRequest is simple: I am lazy. Whenever I find a new program, I first look to see if it is in the FreeBSD ports tree by searching Dan Langille's FreshPorts site. What do I do if the program is not in the ports tree? Next I query the Problem Reports database to see if a new port is pending. For example, this query shows Sguil-related ports that are being developed. What do I do if there is no PR? Do I just bookmark the tool and move on?

I hate bookmarks. Rather than simply bookmark the page for a new program, I now have an alternative. I can try the program (verify that it compiles, see how it works, etc.), and then post information about that program to PortRequest. Others can see the post in PortRequest and add comments. A potential port writer can browse the database looking for interesting ports to create. The idea is to connect people who find new tools with people who have the skill to create new ports.

Here's an example: mwcollect. It's a program similar to Nepenthes, which is already in the ports tree. It would be great to see mwcollect in the tree too. So, I download the program, and I see if I can compile it. Using gmake, I have no errors. Perhaps creating a port would be easy, since mwcollect is now supporting FreeBSD?

This morning I submitted a PortRequest for mwcollect. The program looks like a good candidate for the ports tree. Hopefully an aspiring port developer will visit PortRequest, browse the queue, see that mwcollect looks interesting, and then create a port. We welcome your comments.

Update: I noticed a great thread that discusses contributing to the ports tree, along with this Handbook article.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Zeek in Action Videos

Image
This is a quick note to point blog readers to my Zeek in Action YouTube video series for the Zeek network security monitoring project .  Each video addresses a topic that I think might be of interest to people trying to understand their network using Zeek and adjacent tools and approaches, like Suricata, Wireshark, and so on.  I am especially pleased with Video 6 on monitoring wireless networks . It took me several weeks to research material for this video. I had to buy new hardware and experiment with a Linux distro that I had not used before -- Parrot .  Please like and subscribe, and let me know if there is a topic you think might make a good video.
Read more

MITRE ATT&CK Tactics Are Not Tactics

Image
Just what are "tactics"? Introduction MITRE ATT&CK  is a great resource, but something about it has bothered me since I first heard about it several years ago. It's a minor point, but I wanted to document it in case it confuses anyone else. The MITRE ATT&CK Design and Philosophy document from March 2020 says the following: At a high-level, ATT&CK is a behavioral model that consists of the following core components: • Tactics, denoting short-term, tactical adversary goals during an attack; • Techniques, describing the means by which adversaries achieve tactical goals; • Sub-techniques, describing more specific means by which adversaries achieve tactical goals at a lower level than techniques; and • Documented adversary usage of techniques, their procedures, and other metadata. My concern is with MITRE's definition of "tactics" as "short-term, tactical adversary goals during an attack," which is oddly recursive. The key word in the tacti
Read more

New Book! The Best of TaoSecurity Blog, Volume 4

Image
  I've completed the TaoSecurity Blog book series . The new book is  The Best of TaoSecurity Blog, Volume 4: Beyond the Blog with Articles, Testimony, and Scholarship .  It's available now for Kindle , and I'm working on the print edition.  I'm running a 50% off promo on Volumes 1-3 on Kindle through midnight 20 April. Take advantage before the prices go back up. I described the new title thus: Go beyond TaoSecurity Blog with this new volume from author Richard Bejtlich. In the first three volumes of the series, Mr. Bejtlich selected and republished the very best entries from 18 years of writing and over 18 million blog views, along with commentaries and additional material.  In this title, Mr. Bejtlich collects material that has not been published elsewhere, including articles that are no longer available or are stored in assorted digital or physical archives. Volume 4 offers early white papers that Mr. Bejtlich wrote as a network defender, either for technical or pol
Read more