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Date:      Tue, 26 Sep 2023 08:44:00 -0700
From:      Jose Quinteiro <freebsd@quinteiro.org>
To:        ports@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: dns/bind916 builds rust unexpectedly
Message-ID:  <646911f3-be02-c078-2833-f8af04299af3@quinteiro.org>
In-Reply-To: <6d9121e9-87ac-1a2a-3cb8-b9bccaab4e96@FreeBSD.org>
References:  <202309260653.38Q6rISB011933@nuc.oldach.net> <6d9121e9-87ac-1a2a-3cb8-b9bccaab4e96@FreeBSD.org>

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On 9/26/23 00:17, Guido Falsi wrote:
> On 26/09/23 08:53, Helge Oldach wrote:
>> Gareth de Vaux wrote on Mon, 25 Sep 2023 17:06:54 +0200 (CEST):
>>> Hi all, I've just upgraded bind916 which brought half my system down
>>> since
>>> it suddenly required a mountain of python packages and rust which needed
>>> around 13GB (and hours) to build - space which I didn't have nor have
>>> ever
>>> remotely expected to need for a ports build.
>>>
>>> My bind configuration options are basically the defaults:
>>>
>>> # grep OPTIONS_FILE_SET /var/db/ports/dns_bind916/options
>>> OPTIONS_FILE_SET+=IDN
>>> OPTIONS_FILE_SET+=JSON
>>> OPTIONS_FILE_SET+=LMDB
>>> OPTIONS_FILE_SET+=MANPAGES
>>> OPTIONS_FILE_SET+=TCP_FASTOPEN
>>> OPTIONS_FILE_SET+=GSSAPI_NONE
>>> OPTIONS_FILE_SET+=DLZ_FILESYSTEM
>>>
>>> These are the top level dependencies:
>>>
>>> # make -C /usr/ports/dns/bind916 build-depends-list
>>> /usr/ports/ports-mgmt/pkg
>>> /usr/ports/textproc/py-sphinx
>>> /usr/ports/devel/pkgconf
>>> /usr/ports/security/openssl
>>> /usr/ports/converters/libiconv
>>> /usr/ports/devel/libuv
>>> /usr/ports/textproc/libxml2
>>> /usr/ports/dns/libidn2
>>> /usr/ports/devel/json-c
>>> /usr/ports/databases/lmdb
>>> /usr/ports/devel/libedit
>>>
>>> Does anyone know which option/dependency is causing this? I suspect
>>> MANPAGES -> py-sphinx since it has 'py' but who knows. Which itself
>>> would
>>> be crazy that just a manpage would trigger this kind of intense build.
>>>
>>
>> Indeed, it's py-sphinx, requiring py-openssl at some stage, which is in
>> turn requiring py-cryptography which needs rust.
>>
>> DEFAULT_VERSIONS+=pycryptography=legacy
>>
>> in make.conf fixed this BS for me. Beware of the dogs, you might get
>> bitten by software that requires the new py-cryptography - I did stumble
>> over py-certbot and py-awscli for example.
> 
> py-cryptography was kept at an old version for a long time, for various
> reasons, the new mandatory dependency on rust being the main one.
> 
> But that old version does not work with OpenSSL 3, so the update of
> OpenSSL in FreeBSD 14 imposed the update of py-cryptography.
> 

And yet I remember a proposal that would have prevented this requirement
on one of these lists. Separate base SSL from ports SSL. Force ports to
use ports SSL and prune back base SSL to the bare minimum required for
base. This would have given FreeBSD the freedom to try alternative
things like LibreSSL. It was proposed when the "upgrade" to Openssl 3
delayed the release of 14.

> This is the perfect example of why I say:
> 
> - there are external pressures we have little power on (keeping an old
> OpenSSL indefinitely is not an option)
> - keeping old version of software (to avoid heavy dependencies or
> whatever) is a landmine waiting to go off
> 
> The problem showed up now because the landmine of keeping an old version
> of py-cryptography in the tree finally went off.
> 
> I'm sure there are more similar landmines waiting to explode under our
> feet in the ports tree.
> 

The problem with bending over backwards to accommodate a project that
treats its users with contempt is that they'll overwhelm you eventually.
I'm willing to bet the Python community is at least an order of
magnitude larger than the FreeBSD community.

The creeping Rustification of open source projects is marginalizing
projects that are already marginal. The brunt of the damage caused by
these capricious changes is borne by communities that are already small.
Those communities have no chance to win if they fight back, but if they
work to adapt to the changes the larger projects are imposing on them
they only accelerate their demise and make hegemony more likely.

The effort would be better spent in either exorcising the dependencies
that are causing breakage, or fork the projects involved. Yes, these are
work too, but there's a slim hope that if enough marginal communities do
this, the large projects will feel back pressure and become more
accommodating. Yes, it's a  small chance.

I know myself well enough in my advanced age to know I have a sometimes
unhealthy instinct to swim against the current. Take the above with a
grain of salt, but I suspect that if you're using FreeBSD we may share
some of the same instinct.

Thanks,
Jose



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