Date: Tue, 4 Sep 2007 22:46:50 -0700 From: "Ted Mittelstaedt" <tedm@toybox.placo.com> To: "Bruce Cran" <bruce@cran.org.uk>, <questions@freebsd.org> Subject: RE: Version of top included in FreeBSD Message-ID: <BMEDLGAENEKCJFGODFOCGEENCAAA.tedm@toybox.placo.com> In-Reply-To: <46DDC93A.50806@cran.org.uk>
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> -----Original Message----- > From: owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org > [mailto:owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org]On Behalf Of Bruce Cran > Sent: Tuesday, September 04, 2007 2:08 PM > To: questions@freebsd.org > Subject: Version of top included in FreeBSD > > > I've noticed that the version of top included in FreeBSD is 3.5beta12 > and a new version 3.6 was released last year (see > http://sourceforge.net/projects/unixtop). I realise fixes and > improvements have been made locally in the 3 years since 3.5 was > released, but are there any plans to merge in a newer version, or will > improvements continue to be made locally? > This is an excellent opportunity for you as (I assume) a freeBSD newbie to make a contribution to the system Download the new version of top. Read the license and make sure some bozo hasn't GNUified it. Compile it on FreeBSD 6.2-RELEASE. Test it out to see if everything works fine. Compare it's output to that of the existing top to make sure it matches. If it does, then send in a PR that states you have tested it out, where to get it, that it's still under a BSD license, and what if anything you did to get it to compile. You see, even if you cannot do anything fancy like port the changes from the old version of top into the 3.6 version, the fact that the new version of top hasn't introduced some bogosity that makes it a pain in the arse to deal with under FreeBSD is of immense value. After all your talking about an hour of developer time just to see if the new version works at all, and produces output that isn't far out in left field. If a core developer knows the new top version works and is license-compatible they are going to be much more willing to spend the time porting the FreeBSD-specific changes over to it than if it is a big unknown. And if your more advanced, you can compare the original beta version of top that was used against the BSD system one, see what changes were made, check to see if they were fed back to the top maintainers and if they were implemented in the top code, and if not, submit them to the top maintainers so the source gets updated. Ted
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