From owner-freebsd-current Mon Feb 8 20:23:09 1999 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id UAA00604 for freebsd-current-outgoing; Mon, 8 Feb 1999 20:23:09 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from mail1.its.rpi.edu (mail1.its.rpi.edu [128.113.100.7]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id UAA00591; Mon, 8 Feb 1999 20:23:04 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from drosih@rpi.edu) Received: from [128.113.24.47] (gilead.acs.rpi.edu [128.113.24.47]) by mail1.its.rpi.edu (8.8.8/8.8.6) with ESMTP id XAA60894; Mon, 8 Feb 1999 23:24:33 -0500 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" X-Sender: drosih@pop1.rpi.edu Message-Id: In-Reply-To: <199902090202.SAA64401@troutmask.apl.washington.edu> References: from Mike Holling at "Feb 8, 1999 4:53:54 pm" Date: Mon, 8 Feb 1999 23:23:09 -0500 To: Steve Kargl From: Garance A Drosihn Subject: Re: adding DHCP client to src/contrib/ Cc: obrien@FreeBSD.ORG, current@FreeBSD.ORG Sender: owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG 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 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message