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Date:      Tue, 8 Jul 2014 19:13:23 -0500
From:      Jim Thompson <jim@netgate.com>
To:        "Kristian K. Nielsen" <freebsd@com.jkkn.dk>
Cc:        freebsd-pf@FreeBSD.org
Subject:   Re: Future of pf in FreeBSD ? - does it have one ?
Message-ID:  <278A1BF1-B2E9-4F88-A376-27BD2D10B40C@netgate.com>
In-Reply-To: <53BC717C.9080108@com.jkkn.dk>
References:  <53BC717C.9080108@com.jkkn.dk>

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On Jul 8, 2014, at 5:32 PM, Kristian K. Nielsen <freebsd@com.jkkn.dk> =
wrote:

> Hi all,
>=20
> I am a happy user of the pf-firewall module and have been for years =
and think it is really great but lately its getting a bit dusty.
>=20
> The last few years, however, it seem that pf in FreeBSD got a long way =
away from pf in OpenBSD where it originated and I am also continually =
watching where FreeBSD goes with ipfilter (ipf) and ipfw (dead?).

I think if anything it=92s ipfilter that=92s getting a bit dusty, check =
the thread from last year:
http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-net/2013-April/035207.html

while ipfilter wasn=92t removed from 10, there wasn=92t a lot of =
resolution, either.

moreover, it is ipfw that is getting a lot of love (from luigi and =
crew), not ipfilter.
http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-net/2012-August/032977.html
https://code.google.com/p/netmap-ipfw/

> So I am curious if any on the mailing could elaborate about what the =
future of pf in FreeBSD is.
>=20
> a) First of all - are any actively developing pf in FreeBSD?

Yes.   glebius multithreaded pf for 10.  eri and gleb continue to work =
on it.  gnn found an issue with the Jenkins hash recently, and proposed =
a fix.
work continues.

> b) We are a major release away from OpenBSD (5.6 coming soon) - is =
following OpenBSD's pf the past?

All I can offer here is opinion.

> c) We never got the new syntax from OpenBSD 4.7's pf - is that still =
blocking us?

=91blocking=92?

http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-pf/2013-June/007095.html

> d) Anyone working on bringing FreeBSD up to 5.6?

There was some brief discussion of same at vBSD (prompted by Henning=92s =
rant after being
pushed about his claims about the =93pf=94 in OpenBSD being faster than =
the =93pf=94 in FreeBSD 10).
	This occurred both at ruBSD and vBSD

	http://tech.yandex.ru/events/yagosti/ruBSD/talks/1477/  (you can =
skip to 29:51)
	http://tech.yandex.ru/events/yagosti/ruBSD/talks/1488/ (you can =
skip to 33:18 and 36:53 for the salient bits)
	http://quigon.bsws.de/papers/2013/vbsdcon/
	http://quigon.bsws.de/papers/2013/rubsd/

bapt apparently volunteered to attempt to bring the pf from a more =
modern pf to FreeBSD.  You=92ll have to ask him about status.

You didn=92t ask, but Dragonfly also recently got some pf concurrency =
work committed.
http://lists.dragonflybsd.org/pipermail/commits/2014-June/270300.html

> e) OpenBSD is retiring ALTQ entirely - any thoughts on that?
> http://undeadly.org/cgi?action=3Darticle&sid=3D20140419151959
>=20
> f) IPv6 support?- it seem to be more and more challenged in the =
current version of pf in FreeBSD and I am (as well as others) =
introducing more and more IPv6 in networks.
> E.x. Bugs #179392, #172648, #130381, #127920 and more seriously =
#124933, which is the bug on not handling IPv6 fragments which have been =
open since 2008 and where the workaround is necessity to leave an open =
hole in your firewall ruleset to allow all fragments. Occoring to =
comment in the bug, this have been long gone in OpenBSD.

Ermal is looking at #124933, because I think it=92s important to get =
this fixed for pfSense.

Jim





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