From owner-freebsd-arch@FreeBSD.ORG  Wed May 23 19:12:32 2007
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To: Colin Percival <cperciva@freebsd.org>
From: "Poul-Henning Kamp" <phk@phk.freebsd.dk>
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Wed, 23 May 2007 09:38:46 MST."
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Date: Wed, 23 May 2007 19:12:52 +0000
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Cc: "freebsd-arch@freebsd.org" <freebsd-arch@freebsd.org>
Subject: Re: RFC: Removing file(1)+libmagic(3) from the base system 
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In message <46546E16.9070707@freebsd.org>, Colin Percival writes:
>FreeBSD architects and file(1) maintainer,
>
>I'd like to remove file(1) and libmagic(3) from the FreeBSD base system
>for the following reasons:

>1. I don't see it as being a necessary component of a UNIX-like operating
>system.

On this I would tend to disagree strongly.  The ability to identify
random files have been a key component of UNIX for many years and
I think people would be significantly surprised if we stopped
providing it.

One mitigating option would be to open the magic file and input
and sequester the file process in a jail.

-- 
Poul-Henning Kamp       | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20
phk@FreeBSD.ORG         | TCP/IP since RFC 956
FreeBSD committer       | BSD since 4.3-tahoe    
Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence.