The &os; Core Team

From owner-svn-doc-all@freebsd.org Mon Oct 24 03:58:15 2016 Return-Path: Delivered-To: svn-doc-all@mailman.ysv.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) by mailman.ysv.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3F731C1F946; Mon, 24 Oct 2016 03:58:15 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from bjk@FreeBSD.org) Received: from repo.freebsd.org (repo.freebsd.org [IPv6:2610:1c1:1:6068::e6a:0]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 (256/256 bits)) (Client did not present a certificate) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 08ACEC15; Mon, 24 Oct 2016 03:58:14 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from bjk@FreeBSD.org) Received: from repo.freebsd.org ([127.0.1.37]) by repo.freebsd.org (8.15.2/8.15.2) with ESMTP id u9O3wEOG019015; Mon, 24 Oct 2016 03:58:14 GMT (envelope-from bjk@FreeBSD.org) Received: (from bjk@localhost) by repo.freebsd.org (8.15.2/8.15.2/Submit) id u9O3wEpu019014; Mon, 24 Oct 2016 03:58:14 GMT (envelope-from bjk@FreeBSD.org) Message-Id: <201610240358.u9O3wEpu019014@repo.freebsd.org> X-Authentication-Warning: repo.freebsd.org: bjk set sender to bjk@FreeBSD.org using -f From: Benjamin Kaduk Date: Mon, 24 Oct 2016 03:58:14 +0000 (UTC) To: doc-committers@freebsd.org, svn-doc-all@freebsd.org, svn-doc-head@freebsd.org Subject: svn commit: r49562 - head/en_US.ISO8859-1/htdocs/news/status X-SVN-Group: doc-head MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-BeenThere: svn-doc-all@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.23 Precedence: list List-Id: "SVN commit messages for the entire doc trees \(except for " user" , " projects" , and " translations" \)" List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 24 Oct 2016 03:58:15 -0000 Author: bjk Date: Mon Oct 24 03:58:13 2016 New Revision: 49562 URL: https://svnweb.freebsd.org/changeset/doc/49562 Log: Add core entry from matthew Modified: head/en_US.ISO8859-1/htdocs/news/status/report-2016-07-2016-09.xml Modified: head/en_US.ISO8859-1/htdocs/news/status/report-2016-07-2016-09.xml ============================================================================== --- head/en_US.ISO8859-1/htdocs/news/status/report-2016-07-2016-09.xml Mon Oct 24 03:46:02 2016 (r49561) +++ head/en_US.ISO8859-1/htdocs/news/status/report-2016-07-2016-09.xml Mon Oct 24 03:58:13 2016 (r49562) @@ -1242,4 +1242,120 @@ + + + The &os; Core Team + + + + &os; Core Team + core@FreeBSD.org + + + + +

The third quarter started with the handover to the ninth Core + team as it took office. With four members returning from the + previous core (Baptiste Daroussin, Ed Maste, George Neville-Neil + and Hiroki Sato); one returning member after a term away (John + Baldwin) and four members new to core (Allan Jude, Kris Moore, + Benedict Reuschling and Benno Rice) the new core team represents + just about the ideal balance between experience and fresh + blood.

+ +

Beyond handing over all of the ongoing business, reviewing + everything on Core's agenda and other routine changeover + activities, the first action of the new core was to respond to a + query from Craig Rodrigues concerning how hardware supplied to the + project through donations to the &os; Foundation was being + used.

+ +

The Foundation does keep records of what hardware has been + supplied over time and has some idea of the original purpose that + hardware was provisioned for, but does not track the current usage + of the project's hardware assets. Cluster administration keep + their own configuration database, but this is not suitable for + general publication and covers much more than Foundation supplied + equipment. After some discussion it was decided that updated + information about the current disposition of Foundation supplied + equipment should be incorporated in the Foundation's annual + report.

+ +

Ensuring that all of the &os; code base is supplied under open + and unencumbered licensing terms and that we do not infringe on + patent terms or otherwise act counter to any legal requirements + are some of Core's primary concerns. During this quarter, there + were three items of this nature.

+ +

Importing Concurrency Kit. In consultation with the + Foundation's legal counsel, it was determined that the relevant + patents on the 'Read Copy Update' synchronization mechanisms + have expired, and consequently the import of selected parts of + concurrency kit was approved.
The proposal to create a shadow GPLv3 toolchain repository + was put to the community. Ultimately the whole idea has been + rendered largely redundant by faster than anticipated progress + at integrating the latest LLVM toolchain on most of the + interesting system architectures. The goal of a GPL-free base + system is within our grasp.
Reports that GPL code has been pasted into linuxkpi sources + are under investigation. Core would like to stress that great + care must be taken to avoid inadvertent license infringement, + especially when implementing hardware interfaces or similar + where there is limited scope to invent new constants or + otherwise make it clear this is a novel implementation.

+ +

Work on LLVM has thrown up problems with the presence of + certain pre-compiled binary-only drivers as part of the GENERIC + kernel. Core has adopted the policy that such binary-only code + should be moved to loadable modules and that the GENERIC kernel + must be compiled entirely from original sources.

+ +

The item that has absorbed the largest portion of Core's + attention this quarter concerns the project's handling of security + vulnerabilities in bspatch(1), libarchive(3), FreeBSD-update(8) + and portsnap(8). A partial fix was applied in + &os;-SA-16:25.bspatch but this lacks fixes to libarchive code + that were not yet available from upstream.

+ +

SecTeam receives privileged early reports of many + vulnerabilities and consequently has a strict policy of not + commenting publicly until an advisory and patches have been + published. Early access to information about vulnerabilities is + contingent on their ability to avoid premature disclosure, and + without such, they could not have security advisories and + patches ready to go immediately the vulnerability is + published.

+ +

However, in this case, vulnerabilities were already public and + the lack of any official response from the &os; project was + leading to concern amongst users and some critical press coverage. + Core stepped in and published a statement clarifying the situation + and the particular difficulties involved in securely modifying the + mechanisms used to deliver security patches. Core believes that + prompt notification and discussion of the implications and + possible workarounds to any public vulnerability should not wait + on the availability of formal OS patches.

+ +

The OpenSSH project has deprecated DSA keys upstream. &os; had + kept DSA keys enabled in the later 10.x releases for compatibility + reasons, but with the release of 11.0 the time has come to + synchronise again with upstream. Since there are numerous DSA + keys in use in the &os; cluster this has necessitated an + exercise to get replacement keys installed. Core would like to + thank David Wolfskill and the accounts team for handling the surge + in key changes with a great deal of aplomb.

+ +

During this quarter we welcomed Michael Zhilin, Imre Vadasz, + Steve Kiernan and Toomas Soome as new source committers. Over the + same period, we said farewell to Martin Wilke and Erwin Lansing + who have handed in their commit bits. We wish them well in their + future endeavours and hope to see them return as soon as they + can.

+ +