===== Conclusion =====
It appears that any end-user changes are likely to be rejected.
It also appears that any changes to bsd.*.mk are likely to be rejected.
My best bet is to add a script to Tools/ - this is something that maintainers already do on their own...

===== Proposal =====
I'd like to see the ports system let you use svn (or other SCMs) fetch the code instead of using a tarball

An earlier (but slightly different) [[http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-ports/2008-December/051708.html|proposal]].

==== Reasons ====
Allowing the port to fetch from svn is beneficial for a number of
reasons some of which are listed below
  - Many project's only or main means of distribution is svn (I'm thinking of mplayer)
  - It is easier for the port maintainer to update the port
  - It is easy for a user to quickly switch versions (outside of the
ports system) without the need for lots o knowledge about the ports
system

==== Solved Concerns ====
  - Past attempts didn't include a basic implementation.
  - Past attempts didn't allow for a specific revision number and thus possibly causing security issues
  - Subversion does not have to be part of the base system for my patch to work
  - I could easily code a svn-to-tarball script and the maintainers would upload the code to freefall
  - It is possible to track port updates which this method. The only change occurs in the /fetch/ stage so versioning works.
  - Distfiles can be (by default?) saved into the normal distfile directory and be updated with a fresh export or update.
  - SVN checkout would not be signed; only the tarball would be checked.

==== Unsolved Concerns ====
  * Many users may want the program they are installing but not svn
  * What about SCM's other than svn? (possibly add something like SCM=svn and add some checks for how to properly checkout code from other SCMs)
  * A update to this feature might be dynamic plist generation - this an unsolved problem unless the maintainer does this... (the freeBSD handbook has this - possibly add this to bsd.maintainer.mk...)
  * **Please verify:** Some existing tools like patchtool also needs to be modified which rely for the presence of 'distinfo' file in the port directory, which in this case will never be present.//I'm not sure if this is still true//.

  * svn checkout vs svn export: speed of checkout vs speed of update

==== Things the system should do (AKA a spec) ====
  - Provide a target for any user to checkout from a specific revision (be careful that svn is build with proper support for http:%%//%% or svn:%%//%%
  - 
    * a) Tar the checkout and perform the checksum on the tarball (Build tar without timestamps because otherwise checksums will fail)
    * b) Do a checksum on the checkout itself and only make the tarball when BOOTSTRAP is defined (Doesn't svn have a key that it asks you to trust -> maybe check against that)
  - Either way provide a fallback for users who can't or don't want svn (does svn use $? to tell us when it failed)

==== Possibilities ====
  - Use SVN to fetch for the user directly (my preferred option)
  - Use SVN to let maintainers upload source as a tarball (bootstrapping like comms/wspr)
  - Write a script to do bootstrapping (instead of making it part of bsd.ports.mk
  - Running "make fetch" would perform an svn export/checkout, and would generate a tarball from this in ${DISTDIR} named as ${PORTNAME}-${PORTVERSION}.t[gb]z.

==== Implementations and patches ====
  - [[http://groups.google.com/group/muc.lists.freebsd.ports/msg/8e56b2b645391227|Method 1 - first attempt]]
  - [[http://groups.google.com/group/muc.lists.freebsd.ports/msg/bb533911978bef51|Method 2 - first attempt]]
  - [[http://groups.google.com/group/mailing.freebsd.ports/msg/2f599d16d52eb5b6|Method 2 - second attempt]]
  - [[http://old.nabble.com/Re%3A-RFC%3A-svn-for-make-fetch-p26256843.html|Marcin Wisnicki's idea]]
  - [[http://www.mail-archive.com/freebsd-ports@freebsd.org/msg23916.html|Method 4 - first attempt]]

==== Ports to look at that use svn in some manner ====
grep -ER "svn (export|co|checkout)" /usr/ports/
  * devel/llvm-devel
  * net/freeswitch
  * commns/wspr
  * cad/kicad-devel
  * comms/wsjt
  * devel/thrift
  * games/q2pro
  * multimedia/flv2mpeg4
  * sysutils/superiotool
  * devel/compiler-rt
  * games/evq3
  * games/worldofpadman
  * graphics/autopano-sift
  * games/freeorion
  * net/yate-devel
  * net-im/cjc
  * www/tidy-devel
  * www/twiki
  * www/foswiki
  * x11-toolkits/gigi
  * astro/boinc-setiathome-enhanced (distfiles stored on local server)