Dev accidentally commits Copilot binary to FreeBSD ports repo

The FreeBSD project froze its ports repository on Wednesday. The reason turns out to be a slightly embarrassing Git-related oopsie where a version of Copilot got uploaded somewhere it should not have been. The announcement of the 2026 Ports Repository Freeze went out on July 21 and remained in effect the following day, as explained in a message on the freebsd-announce mailing list. The mail delicately skirted around exactly what happened: « The commit in question severed our ports tree mirroring to github.com due to their filesize hard limit of 100MB, and introduced a blob of questionable licensing into the repository history. » The offending commit is this one. It’s not a disaster; the problem is that the Ports repository is automatically mirrored to various places, including a read-only Github mirror – and as Github’s docs say, “GitHub blocks files larger than 100 MiB.” There is already an official FreeBSD port of Copilot, but FreeBSD terminology is slightly confusing here: the “port” is effectively a sort of package that allows the Linux binary to run inside FreeBSD’s Linux emulation, called the Linuxulator. It isn't a native FreeBSD version of Copilot, and the package is not meant to include the actual Copilot CLI binary – partly because that is under its own custom license. That’s what FreeBSD’s Kyle Evans meant by “questionable licensing”. We don’t blame anyone for using any available resources to help with using GitHub. Navigating Linux, FreeBSD, and worst of all Git is hard, especially the last one. Git is aptly named – it’s not an acronym, it’s a real word: someone annoying or unpleasant. It is, however, now more or less the de facto standard version control system of the FOSS world. Despite not being a developer, the Reg FOSS desk worked with Git on a daily basis for over four years – blame the Docs as Code philosophy – and developed a deep and abiding dislike for it. It’s not just us: it’s in an XKCD comic, so it must be true. (This vulture has directly lived the experience described in that comic.) Personally, we always found Git much harder work than the tar command. It should come as no surprise that multiple teams are working on compatible alternatives. A Game of Thrones Trees Just the day before some FreeBSD developer’s regrettably public mishap, a new version of one of those alternatives appeared: Game of Trees version 0.127. Game of Trees, known as Got for short, is a Git-compatible version control system (VCS) developed by contributors to the OpenBSD Project. It’s been in development since 2019, and we feel that the project has a nice line in self-deprecation – starting with the homepage’s project description: “a version control system which prioritizes ease of use and simplicity over flexibility.” This is, we suspect, in response to Git’s self-description, which says that it is “designed to handle everything from small to very large projects with speed and efficiency.” We also like the Got project goals and especially the FAQ, which really does not beat about the bush: « Does Got aim to replace Git? No. Got does not aim to replace Git. Got can be used instead of Git (for some tasks), or in addition to Git. If you are already using Git and are happy with it, you don’t need Got. » And even more succinctly, under the anchor “pointless”: « What’s the point of all this? Why not just use Git? If you are wondering why Got even exists, you can just ignore it. » Got isn’t the only tool that aims to remain compatible with Git, but simplify the experience. Gitless is another, which describes itself as “a simple version control system built on top of Git,” and says that it’s “easy to learn and use.” Unfortunately, development seems to have gone quiet: the last release appeared the same year that Got appeared. Another (and even younger) Git-compatible VCS is Jujutsu, often called just “Jj”, and not to be confused with the traditional Japanese martial art Jiu Jitsu. Jujutsu the VCS has lots of documentation, but if it has a weakness, it's that it rather assumes that you already know your way around VCS use in general and Git in particular. If that’s not the case for you, you might find Jujutsu for Everyone by Remo Senekowitsch more helpful. ®

source https://www.theregister.com/os-platforms/2026/07/24/dev-accidentally-commits-copilot-binary-to-freebsd-ports-repo/5278458