Date: Tue, 3 Jul 2018 07:45:19 -0700 (PDT) From: "Rodney W. Grimes" <freebsd-rwg@pdx.rh.CN85.dnsmgr.net> To: Eitan Adler <lists@eitanadler.com> Cc: "freebsd-arch@freebsd.org" <arch@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: xstr, mkstr Message-ID: <201807031445.w63EjJmF038596@pdx.rh.CN85.dnsmgr.net> In-Reply-To: <CAF6rxgnqEkgq4_FaZasL1z3vx0r1jOG0WGrdnMAXFig%2Byu3WpQ@mail.gmail.com>
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> On 24 June 2018 at 02:51, Eitan Adler <lists@eitanadler.com> wrote: > > Why are these tools in base? As far as I could tell these tools are > > un-used in the build process and otherwise specialized tools. Is there > > any reason we still have them in the toolchain or in base? > > Anyone? They don't cause acute problems, but having specialized and > specific tools like this don't seem like they belong. Since when was any of that the criteria for if something should or should not be in a BSD operating system? One could apply that type of critera from difference perspectives to almost anything in the base system and ask for its removal. tip/cu no longer belong, who has serial ports? (A modern MACbook user who hasnt seen a serial port on a machine in a decade). ME, screams an embeded board user. What appears to be unused or specialized to one user can be very differeent to another. It is best to keep an open mind that there are many very diverse users of BSD. These tools are "in base" because 1BSD and 3BSD put them there as useful tools. And given that age they probably got used a fair bit. So that answers the question as to why they are there. "As far as I can tell" needs to be a bit stronger, have you removed them from the system and had an exp run done to make sure they are not used? Rather than trying to micro minimize the size of FreeBSD base realizes that package base should completly optionalize these types of things and then users can decide if they need/want them. Then perhaps at that point start a large and complete sweep of the system to try and decide what is and is not in base. Doing this one little thing at a time is just a PITA and IMHO a waste of time. -- Rod Grimes rgrimes@freebsd.org
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