From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Nov 8 16:22:25 2005 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E42D616A421 for ; Tue, 8 Nov 2005 16:22:25 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from cperciva@freebsd.org) Received: from pd3mo2so.prod.shaw.ca (shawidc-mo1.cg.shawcable.net [24.71.223.10]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0E76843D49 for ; Tue, 8 Nov 2005 16:22:22 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from cperciva@freebsd.org) Received: from pd5mr1so.prod.shaw.ca (pd5mr1so-qfe3.prod.shaw.ca [10.0.141.232]) by l-daemon (Sun ONE Messaging Server 6.0 HotFix 1.01 (built Mar 15 2004)) with ESMTP id <0IPN00FRT9GRCK30@l-daemon> for freebsd-stable@freebsd.org; Tue, 08 Nov 2005 09:22:03 -0700 (MST) Received: from pn2ml5so.prod.shaw.ca ([10.0.121.149]) by pd5mr1so.prod.shaw.ca (Sun ONE Messaging Server 6.0 HotFix 1.01 (built Mar 15 2004)) with ESMTP id <0IPN00KD49GRCMH0@pd5mr1so.prod.shaw.ca> for freebsd-stable@freebsd.org; Tue, 08 Nov 2005 09:22:03 -0700 (MST) Received: from [192.168.0.60] (S0106006067227a4a.vc.shawcable.net [24.87.209.6]) by l-daemon (iPlanet Messaging Server 5.2 HotFix 1.18 (built Jul 28 2003)) with ESMTP id <0IPN00FY99GQOY@l-daemon> for freebsd-stable@freebsd.org; Tue, 08 Nov 2005 09:22:03 -0700 (MST) Date: Tue, 08 Nov 2005 08:22:01 -0800 From: Colin Percival In-reply-to: <436BCA7B.6060700@voidmain.net> To: freebsd@voidmain.net Message-id: <4370D0A9.4030707@freebsd.org> MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit X-Accept-Language: en-us, en X-Enigmail-Version: 0.93.0.0 References: <120ef0530511041210s6d3dbee8pc2db36129b44be2c@mail.gmail.com> <436BCA7B.6060700@voidmain.net> User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0.7 (X11/20051001) Cc: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org, Richard Bejtlich Subject: What should be in GENERIC? (was Re: Facilitating binary kernel upgrades) X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 08 Nov 2005 16:22:26 -0000 Tom Grove wrote: > Richard Bejtlich wrote: >> After speaking with Colin, he mentioned that IPSec, NAT, and disk >> quotas (enabled via options QUOTA) are the three most popular kernel >> changes that prevent people from running GENERIC and hence using >> freebsd-update for binary kernel updates. >> >> Can anyone shed light on why those three features are not available in >> GENERIC? > > My guess is that just because those are the three most popular kernel > changes that prevent people from running GENERIC doesn't mean that the > majority of users implement these changes. I find this argument hard to accept. The vast majority of FreeBSD users will never need the NFS_ROOT option, and many systems do not even have the hardware for serial or parallel ports, yet those are supported in the GENERIC kernel. In deciding what options should go into the GENERIC kernel, I think the question we should be asking is not "how many people use this?", but instead "would adding this option inconvenience more people than it would help?". Colin Percival