From owner-freebsd-geom@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Apr 8 13:43:00 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-geom@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B3463106564A for ; Thu, 8 Apr 2010 13:43:00 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from kris@pcbsd.org) Received: from mail.iXsystems.com (newknight.ixsystems.com [206.40.55.70]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 928A08FC0A for ; Thu, 8 Apr 2010 13:43:00 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mail.ixsystems.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mail.iXsystems.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 18036A66402 for ; Thu, 8 Apr 2010 06:27:34 -0700 (PDT) Received: from mail.iXsystems.com ([127.0.0.1]) by mail.ixsystems.com (mail.ixsystems.com [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-maia, port 10024) with ESMTP id 07760-10 for ; Thu, 8 Apr 2010 06:27:33 -0700 (PDT) Received: from [192.168.0.55] (unknown [75.131.46.136]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-CAMELLIA256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by mail.iXsystems.com (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id B0DD9A66400 for ; Thu, 8 Apr 2010 06:27:33 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <4BBDA17D.1030502@pcbsd.org> Date: Thu, 08 Apr 2010 09:27:25 +0000 From: Kris Moore User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; FreeBSD amd64; en-US; rv:1.9.1.8) Gecko/20100302 Thunderbird/3.0.3 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: freebsd-geom@freebsd.org References: <55861270658151@web135.yandex.ru> <4BBD68DB.7050600@yandex.ru> <201004080727.21020.bruce@cran.org.uk> <4BBD7CDC.2070505@yandex.ru> <20100408103809.13496s9i6ny03ocg@webmail.leidinger.net> <867hoi8gbl.fsf@ds4.des.no> <20100408121500.13995d1eu7b9bt0k@webmail.leidinger.net> <86fx36up9e.fsf@ds4.des.no> In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Subject: Re: [RFC] Rewriting sade(8) X-BeenThere: freebsd-geom@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: GEOM-specific discussions and implementations List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 08 Apr 2010 13:43:00 -0000 On 04/08/2010 12:23, Ivan Voras wrote: > On 04/08/10 14:01, Dag-Erling Smørgrav wrote: > >> Alexander Leidinger writes: >> >>> I think this is more complicated than to refactor the interesting part >>> into a backend with an API which both tools can use. This would also >>> allow someone to write a GUI program (e.g. for PC-BSD). >>> >> There have been at least three or four attempts to do this in the past. >> One of them was even fully funded by the FreeBSD Foundation. They all >> failed. >> > Since I was involved in one of them (not the Foundation-funded one, > though; who got that? I don't remember seeing an announcement), I'll > attempt to share some of my experiences. > > One experience is that, unless both components (the backend and the > front-end) are done, nobody will use either. > > The second, that it's apparently a given that the backend must be > written in C to be imported into base - this is a large obstacle for > doing something that, I think, by definition should be scriptable. > Apparently noone was/is interested in a Python backend :( > > Third, I feel that using a RPC-like network protocol - in my case > XML-RPC was/is a good idea but it also received too little comments and > interest. > > Fourth, it's bloody hard doing open-source development unless you have > external funding. > > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-geom@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-geom > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-geom-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" > FWIW, I think there's nothing wrong with doing a backend in something other than C. On the PC-BSD side we've implemented our own new backend / frontend installer scheme, and its working quite nicely now. The backend is written entirely in "sh", with no requirements on any extra libs / programs. This means we can run it on a 100% pure FreeBSD base, and not need some 3rd party utilities to be included. http://trac.pcbsd.org/browser/pcbsd/trunk/pc-sysinstall Anyway, it now supports ZFS, glabel, geli, gmirror, gpart, GPT, script-able installs, etc and is still under heavy development to improve upon said features. Our C++ front-end is written in QT4, which of course is great for the PC-BSD side. If we could get somebody to write a curses front-end then it may be possible to use it for FreeBSD as well. (It already supports doing Vanilla FreeBSD-only installations) -- Kris Moore PC-BSD Software iXsystems