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Date:      Sat, 24 Sep 2005 09:34:31 -0600
From:      Scott Long <scottl@samsco.org>
To:        Max Laier <max@love2party.net>
Cc:        freebsd-arch@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Bridges
Message-ID:  <43357207.7080405@samsco.org>
In-Reply-To: <200509241525.16173.max@love2party.net>
References:  <200509241525.16173.max@love2party.net>

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Max Laier wrote:
> All,
> 
> for some time now, we have three bridge implementations in the tree:
>  - net/bridge.c         - the "old" bridge
>  - net/if_bridge.c      - the "new" bridge from Net/OpenBSD
>  - netgraph/ng_bridge.c - the netgraph version [1]
> 
> The new code has several advantages over the old version:
>  - Spanning Tree Protocol (802.1D)
>  - better firewall support (IPv6, stateful filtering, ...)
>  - easy ifconfig(8) configuration
> 
> while keeping all the functionality that was present in the old code:
>  - dummynet support
>  - IPFW L2 support [2]
> 
> There have been some benchmarks that suggest that there isn't a performance 
> issue either, but more numbers are always appreciated.  If it turns out that 
> there is any remaining problem with if_bridge we need to fix it.  If you are 
> running an old bridge on 6.0-BETA try moving to the new code and let us know.
> 
> This means the old code is obsolete.  In order to keep code duplication down 
> and not hinder further development (Andre is working on an overhaul of [2] 
> and would have to do it twice, for example) I would like to retire the old 
> bridge code soon.  This should happen in HEAD only and thus the old bridge 
> will stay for all of FreeBSD 6 unless more aggressive depreciation is 
> requested.
> 
> Please test the new alternative if you are using the old one still.  Let us 
> know if there are any issues remaining.
> 
> Objections against soon retirement of bridge.c in HEAD?
> 
> [1] listed for completeness only.
> 

I'm fine with it being removed in HEAD.  You should change the docs and 
whatever appropriate manpages in 6-STABLE to clearly indicate that it is
deprecated there and may be removed in the future.

Scott



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