From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Jan 8 08:15:22 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 375C416A4CE for ; Thu, 8 Jan 2004 08:15:22 -0800 (PST) Received: from vhost109.his.com (vhost109.his.com [216.194.225.101]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E446E43D48 for ; Thu, 8 Jan 2004 08:15:19 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from brad.knowles@skynet.be) Received: from [10.0.1.4] (localhost.his.com [127.0.0.1]) by vhost109.his.com (8.12.6p3/8.12.3) with ESMTP id i08GFExe030400; Thu, 8 Jan 2004 11:15:16 -0500 (EST) (envelope-from brad.knowles@skynet.be) Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Sender: bs663385@pop.skynet.be Message-Id: In-Reply-To: <20040108102730.GA55397@xor.obsecurity.org> References: <3FFC03E5.7010305@iconoplex.co.uk> <200401071429.i07ETZMI068819@grimreaper.grondar.org> <20040107200838.GD86935@freepuppy.bellavista.cz> <20040108102730.GA55397@xor.obsecurity.org> Date: Thu, 8 Jan 2004 16:37:53 +0100 To: Kris Kennaway From: Brad Knowles Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed" X-Mailman-Approved-At: Thu, 08 Jan 2004 14:11:57 -0800 cc: Dag-Erling Sm?rgrav cc: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Where is FreeBSD going? X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 08 Jan 2004 16:15:22 -0000 At 2:27 AM -0800 2004/01/08, Kris Kennaway wrote: > It's certainly true that we're lacking in build hardware for some > non-i386 platforms (particularly sparc64), and this made it pretty > tricky to build packages for 5.2 on those architectures (a full > sparc64 build takes at least a month). I've heard some rumours of > donated equipment waiting to be installed, but I don't know what the > status of that is. I've got a SPARC64 box sitting downstairs, waiting for me to install it. Actually, I've got four of them. I was planning on using one for FreeBSD support, one for NetBSD, one for OpenBSD, and one for Solaris. I was also thinking about using the OpenBSD/sparc64 box as a primary firewall (until I can get something better), but I imagine that NetBSD really doesn't need much more sparc64 support right now -- maybe I could reconsider using that one for sparc64 package support. > Likewise, a 5.2 i386 build takes about a week, which means that the > freeze *cannot* be shorter than this, even if everything goes > perfectly (which, in practise, never happens). This time around, the > freeze started on 23 Nov and was lifted on 3 Dec. That's 10 days, > which is about as good as you could hope for. If we could build > packages in - say - a day, we'd be able to cut the freeze time down > further, although I expect the duration would become limited by the > speed at which problems can be corrected. Sounds to me like a reliable RAM disk for temporary files would be very helpful. There are at least one or two PCI card models that I think can take up to 8GB, and which I know work with Linux. If they don't already work with FreeBSD, I would imagine it shouldn't take too much work to fix that. > Every now and then we get offers of access to a machine here or a > machine there to help with building packages. The main problem with > donating machine resources is that there's limited space in the > freebsd.org equipment racks, and the package build system currently > needs LAN-equivalent connectivity between the machines. To be useful > we'd either need a full cluster of faster machines located somewhere, > or to find time to rewrite the build scripts to work efficiently with > remote build resources. Hmm. I would seriously consider donating one or two sparc64 boxes to the project (once I confirm they work ;-), but I would want to make sure that there is space to support them. Otherwise, I would be willing to run them from my basement. Of course, that's precisely the problem you already have. I've done a bit of script hacking in the past. Do you have any idea what would be required to hack these scripts to suit? Alternatively, I might be able to get you some additional build resources somewhere else. In fact, I think this other place is probably already quite familiar with FreeBSD, and they might be surprised to hear about this need -- should I contact them? -- Brad Knowles, "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania. GCS/IT d+(-) s:+(++)>: a C++(+++)$ UMBSHI++++$ P+>++ L+ !E-(---) W+++(--) N+ !w--- O- M++ V PS++(+++) PE- Y+(++) PGP>+++ t+(+++) 5++(+++) X++(+++) R+(+++) tv+(+++) b+(++++) DI+(++++) D+(++) G+(++++) e++>++++ h--- r---(+++)* z(+++)