Date: Mon, 8 Feb 1999 23:23:09 -0500 From: Garance A Drosihn <drosih@rpi.edu> To: Steve Kargl <sgk@troutmask.apl.washington.edu> Cc: obrien@FreeBSD.ORG, current@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: adding DHCP client to src/contrib/ Message-ID: <v04011704b2e5611d71ab@[128.113.24.47]> In-Reply-To: <199902090202.SAA64401@troutmask.apl.washington.edu> References: <Pine.BSF.4.03.9902081645090.1994-100000@phluffy.fks.bt> from Mike Holling at "Feb 8, 1999 4:53:54 pm"
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At 6:02 PM -0800 2/8/99, Steve Kargl wrote:
>Mike Holling wrote:
>> ... What's the problem? It's not like putting emacs in the base
>> install or anything. I still run FreeBSD on a 386/40 with a 40M MFM
>> main drive, and even so I'm not worried about the "bloat" of adding
>> DHCP.
>
> Bloat by any other name is still bloat.
I think it is a very good idea to have DHCP client support in the
base system. Note that I am on a campus which is heading for DHCP
for pretty much all student-owned computers, and many campus-owned
computers too.
>> Windows comes with DHCP. Heck, even my old Mac IIci running
>> System 7.5.5 comes with DHCP. It's small and increasingly useful,
>> why not make it part of the base distribution?
>
> Where do you draw the line on the base system?
How about "things you need before you can send a single packet over
the network"? Particularly for those thinking of doing a network
install of an operating system, this might be a good starting point.
Every fall we have about 1100 students show up, and many of those
students will want to have their computer up and running before
they have their alarm clock plugged in. Realistically, the only
way for us (the computer center) to deal with this logistical
nightmare is thru DHCP. I do not see that changing anytime soon.
> Security is important so add tcp_wrappers? More and more
> documentation is released in html, so add apache?
You don't need either of these to send a packet over our network.
You do need DHCP (or you need to wait a week or two before you'll
get a fixed IP address so you can use your machine on our network).
> Once something is added to the base distribution, it seldomly
> gets removed?
>From my environment, the chances that DHCP is going to go away
anytime soon is zero. Not "close to zero", but absolute zero.
Given a situation where:
1) a user wants to do a network install (to get the latest
version of everything)
and 2) the user will not be able to use the network without
DHCP support
then what does that user have to do if a DHCP client is not
part of the base system?
At the same time, I do agree with Matthew Dillion's comment that
it would be a very prudent idea if someone could do a code review
of whatever DHCP client is chosen, so we have some confidence WRT
security issues.
---
Garance Alistair Drosehn = gad@eclipse.its.rpi.edu
Senior Systems Programmer or drosih@rpi.edu
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
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