From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Oct 8 15:54:42 2013 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [8.8.178.115]) (using TLSv1 with cipher ADH-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6981727B for ; Tue, 8 Oct 2013 15:54:42 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jonathan.robert.anderson@gmail.com) Received: from mail-vb0-x232.google.com (mail-vb0-x232.google.com [IPv6:2607:f8b0:400c:c02::232]) (using TLSv1 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-RC4-SHA (128/128 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 2C40A2CA0 for ; Tue, 8 Oct 2013 15:54:42 +0000 (UTC) Received: by mail-vb0-f50.google.com with SMTP id x14so4532771vbb.9 for ; Tue, 08 Oct 2013 08:54:41 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20120113; h=mime-version:sender:from:date:message-id:subject:to:cc:content-type; bh=KKhuVNwthQ8V/OIqBwqY7ZR2xF3V4N4cRXXzgh+Bfxw=; b=iacamuySkL7iTrWhCVX7/eA7WkySHkdWJoigv2CdbyCpSh43uJ+NoQnZYdWDGp60um UxKPug5rGZnXgemZMGuCOoRawupMLJVFMnMurUWdTnflHNGjHyg7tuvs6XUO1AZqz71F VVYR7ipX45k1OO8PlfC5voKMaN8Xuf2MD30D7u73xc6gX3ols4focbPa6989U1yUC6QQ vRsi/NKl0Kw/IXkh20WNnidUEXehjqKgbVL+NlZkBFiFK/DxyvbMbtFW8MJlLGSQ7ws1 XffDq9wchIGQVrlRtXqAvCrca3R4lm4On3OrnAAeafVpwAJaxu6y06SixopEA4neXpqo ZzcA== X-Received: by 10.221.27.73 with SMTP id rp9mr1549521vcb.29.1381247681240; Tue, 08 Oct 2013 08:54:41 -0700 (PDT) MIME-Version: 1.0 Sender: jonathan.robert.anderson@gmail.com Received: by 10.52.180.201 with HTTP; Tue, 8 Oct 2013 08:54:21 -0700 (PDT) From: Jonathan Anderson Date: Tue, 8 Oct 2013 16:54:21 +0100 X-Google-Sender-Auth: YLDOlLye1xmZg8kXOQLCx5QAeOY Message-ID: Subject: The Base System (was: rcs) To: sthaug@nethelp.no Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Cc: bright@mu.org, lyndon@orthanc.ca, sgk@troutmask.apl.washington.edu, freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 08 Oct 2013 15:54:42 -0000 On 8 October 2013 16:04, wrote: > - For some of us, the attraction of FreeBSD is that it is a tightly > integrated system, and the base contains enough useful functionality > that we don't *have* to add a lot of packages. > > - Each package that is moved out of the base system means less useful > functionality in the base system - and for me: Less reason to use > FreeBSD instead of Linux. > > I absolutely see the problem of maintaining out-of-date packages in > the base system, and the desirability of making the base system less > reliant on GPL. I'm mostly troubled by the fact that there seems to > be a rather strong tendency the last few years of having steadily > less functionality in the base system - and I'm not at all convinced > that the right balance has been found here. I think this is the core problem at the root of many discussions besides this one. What is the base system? FreeBSD users tend to agree that we like a self-contained wad of stuff called The Base System but disagree quite strongly about what should be in it. There are several approaches to the problem, ranging from concrete and specific ("exactly what shipped with 4.4BSD", a.k.a. Originalism) to principled but open to interpretation ("what 4.4BSD would ship if it were released today", a.k.a. Founders' Intent). We will never all agree on exactly what should be in base vs ports/packages, but can we perhaps build consensus around principles? When you first take it out of the box, does The Base System need to be: - self-bootstrapping - POSIX-compliant - administerable - with local shell - with local tools (e.g. RCS, vim, git...) - with remote shell (SSH) - with remote tools (e.g. Puppet) - with "enterprise" integration (e.g. Kerberos, LDAP, 802.1x, SMB...) - useful for end-user workloads: - [cross-]building FreeBSD - [cross-]building {program X in language Y} - file server - DNS server - Kerberos server - SVN server - Postgres server - Web server - Hadoop node - X server - desktop - able to install packages / build ports to do the above - able to run Linux binaries ? I think we all agree with the first two items, but where should we draw the line? Suppose we distributed install media with The Base System + some packages tailored to a particular environment; would that change what needs to be in The Base System? If "FreeBSD Enterprise Edition" or "FreeBSD Hacker Edition" shipped with The Base System plus whatever packages you need for that environment/workload, and if the installer knew how to install those packages, could The Base System itself be smaller, e.g. just what we need to bootstrap FreeBSD itself? Jon -- Jonathan Anderson jonathan@FreeBSD.org http://freebsd.org/~jonathan/