Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Mon, 24 Feb 2014 08:39:25 -0800
From:      Lyndon Nerenberg <lyndon@orthanc.ca>
To:        FreeBSD current <freebsd-current@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: Import of DragonFly Mail Agent
Message-ID:  <ACBDDBE2-34C5-4F8D-8803-D42686C526C7@orthanc.ca>
In-Reply-To: <45746.1393257416@critter.freebsd.dk>
References:  <20140223211155.GS1699@ithaqua.etoilebsd.net> <530B67EA.1090102@FreeBSD.org> <D39456D8-88D1-4617-825C-44B30890FBD8@orthanc.ca> <45746.1393257416@critter.freebsd.dk>

index | next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail

[-- Attachment #1 --]
On Feb 24, 2014, at 7:56 AM, Poul-Henning Kamp <phk@phk.freebsd.dk> wrote:

> Bullshit.

Sounds like your week didn't get off to a good start.

> You got FreeBSD in there in the first place, there clearly
> is some kind of aperture through which software can migrate.

Yes, we walk in a DVD-ROM with a FreeBSD installation image on it.  This works because there is a self-contained installer that contains a very complete system.  Certainly enough to build things like file servers and network infrastructure machines (dhcp, ntp, other general network services).

Installing ports/pkgs, on the other hand, is a real pain.  For pre-built packages, you can build a list of dependencies, download the packages to an external machine, copy them to a portable drive, and walk them over to a shared filesystem.  This works, provided there are pre-built images of the package and its recursive dependency tree (and that they are configured in a way that works for your environment).

If the above doesn't work, you have to fall back to ports.  And this is where things get really hairy.  Just generating the list of required distfiles is problematic.  'make fetch-recursive-list' will give you a script to run to pull down the direct build dependencies, but this misses run-time dependencies.  Generating that list takes a lot of manual work, and is *very* time consuming.

The increasing focus on securing systems from network attacks in only increasing the number of air-gapped environments (and I know this from first hand experience).  The sort of massive unbundling that a few people are tossing around here has the potential to exponentially increase the workload of people operating in the environments I have witnessed (and worked in).  I want them to realize that there are ramifications to those sort of changes that need to be taken into consideration.

These days UNIX tends to be single-user environment, for the most part.  Because of that it is very easy for people to get into the mindset that "if I don't use it, nobody else uses it," and thus losing sight of the whole being so much greater than the sum of its parts.

That said, I can understand wanting to unbundle some of the very complex but lesser used components (e.g. bind).  But there's always a balancing act to be performed here.  Making every command in /usr/bin its own package serves nobody.  (Yes, I exaggerate to make a point.)

--lyndon


[-- Attachment #2 --]
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
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=qR9U
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
help

Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?ACBDDBE2-34C5-4F8D-8803-D42686C526C7>