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Date:      Sun, 26 May 2013 03:07:56 +0000
From:      "Teske, Devin" <Devin.Teske@fisglobal.com>
To:        Bruce Cran <bruce@cran.org.uk>
Cc:        FreeBSD Hackers <freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org>, Devin Teske <dteske@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: FreeBSD installers and future direction
Message-ID:  <13CA24D6AB415D428143D44749F57D7201F5B0FB@ltcfiswmsgmb26>
In-Reply-To: <51A1025A.2020607@cran.org.uk>
References:  <51A0DC3F.9030301@cran.org.uk> <CAK6u07WDZrWU4dnrBzQGYf%2BpbmibK7KxSUZyvie8jJQ1SMODuw@mail.gmail.com> <51A1025A.2020607@cran.org.uk>

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On May 25, 2013, at 11:26 AM, Bruce Cran wrote:

> On 25/05/2013 17:15, Matt Olander wrote:
>> From my vague recollection, we discussed improving bsdinstall by tying
>> it in with pc-sysinstall, which we've been threatening to do for at
>> least a year. Also, there was much discussion about Devin's bsdconfig
>> perhaps tying in with a Google SoC Project.
>>=20
>> I think Devin was nominated for most of the work, since he was unable
>> to defend himself :P
>=20
> Thanks. From previous discussions with Devin I think he has other plans f=
or the installer that don't involve pc-sysinstall. But since it seems the f=
uture is all sh(1) code, I won't be able to contribute.
>=20

The future of how these softwares become entangled to produce something bet=
ter:

+ bsdinstall
+ pc-sysinstall
+ bsdconfig

Is in my mind entirely still open as I work to finish up bsdconfig.

I was thinking=85

Perhaps just rewrite bsdinstall from scratch (using the existing code as a =
template).

Have to put pc-sysinstall on the back-burner for any/all considerations unt=
il the code is cleaned up and actually usable on all architectures (there's=
 a GSoC project to do exactly that -- I'm the potential mentor; project is =
pending status).

So unless this GSoC goes through and we are able to (as we plan) clean up t=
hat mess=85

Defacto plan is to just rewrite bsdinstall from scratch (again=85 using the=
 existing code as a template).

In said rewrite=85 I'd *heavily* leverate usr.sbin/bsdconfig/share/*.subr (=
specifically "dialog.subr" -- the abstraction layer that allows me to have =
nice i18n-ready dialogs and also gracefully handle dialog in a way that mak=
es my code look very clean).



> https://wiki.freebsd.org/PCBSDInstallMerge lists a few limitations with p=
c-sysinstall - are these being fixed?
>=20

I can see if the GSoC student for the "Making pc-sysinstall FreeBSD ready b=
y porting it to multiple architectures" project is willing to incorporate a=
ny of those limitations into his work. But I think the focus of the project=
 should be to clean up the code and make it work on at least one other impo=
rtant non-x86 architecture. Barring that=85

You're absolutely right in stating that any/all discussions on merging pc-s=
ysinstall with bsdinstall would result in a regression with pc-sysinstall i=
n its current state.
--=20
Devin

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