Re: some questions about OpenBSDs future plans

[Hannah Schroeter <hannah_(_at_)_schlund_(_dot_)_de>]

Hello!

I'm no official OpenBSD developper, it's just my impressions.

On Mon, May 09, 2005 at 05:16:14PM +0200, Sascha Retzki wrote:
>Hello folks,

>1.) Do you plan to distribute several MTAs, like NetBSD currently does? Or
>do you already (first check said no, but maybe I missed something)?

I don't think so. But alternative MTAs are easy to install thanks to
mailwrapper and /usr/ports/mail/* (or the packages, of course). For
example, I run exim here.

>2.) Do you plan to distribute PAM in base?

I guess not even over Theo's dead body.

OpenBSD has the BSD Authentication system, see:

auth_approval, auth_cat, auth_checknologin, auth_mkvalue,
auth_userchallenge, auth_usercheck, auth_userokay, auth_userresponse,
auth_verify (3) - simplified interface to the BSD Authentication system

auth_open, auth_call, auth_challenge, auth_check_change,
auth_check_expire, auth_clean, auth_close, auth_clrenv, auth_clroption,
auth_clroptions, auth_getitem, auth_getpwd, auth_getstate,
auth_getvalue, auth_set_va_list, auth_setdata, auth_setenv,
auth_setitem, auth_setoption, auth_setpwd, auth_setstate (3) - interface
to the BSD Authentication system

login_...(8).

>3.) Did anybody look close enough on TenDRA yet? I'd like to know how much
>GNUism is in OpenBSDs base, building mechanism, so basicly it adds up to:
>How long do we/you have to wait till TenDRA can be used?

It was quite long ago when I tried out tcc, and it could compile *some*
programs of /usr/src/usr.bin fine. I guess it has at least not become
worse, but it doesn't look like it's going to be used officially soon,
if at all.

>3.2.) Even if the compiler/debugger/linker stuff runs on BSDLed code from
>the TenDRA people, do you roughly know how much software in base is GPL/GNU,
>and how much of that must be there?

/usr/src/gnu answers that (not all of that is specifically GPL, some is
other licenses with similar spirit, e.g. sendmail, perl).

>4.) I saw lkm-stuff in your tree, do you want the same situation as linux has,
>like that "too much" is modulized, or do you want that API for situations 
>where kernel mods are the only bearable solution?

My impression is that it's just taken along from 4.4BSD, seems OpenBSD
usually uses a monolithic kernel, usually GENERIC.

>5.) What do you think about devfs? Will it be there in the near or far
>future?

I don't have the impression.

>6.) Do you guys like X11R6? Would you remove it if $somebody comes up with
>some basic window-manager-alike basing on something simple like svgalibs?
>Or, rather, would you distribute that in base, too?

It wouldn't be an implementation of X11R6, so no substitute.

>I hope I did not forget too much, thanks for reading and possibly 
>asking me stuff or answering

>Sascha Retzki

Kind regards,

Hannah.