Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2005 09:56:53 -1000 From: Clifton Royston <cliftonr@tikitechnologies.com> To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: OpenBSD's netcat in base or ports? Message-ID: <20050126195652.GC27677@tikitechnologies.com> In-Reply-To: <346a8022050125104667f631be@mail.gmail.com> References: <20050126120046.2320B16A4CF@hub.freebsd.org>
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On Wed, Jan 26, 2005 at 12:00:46PM +0000, freebsd-hackers-request@freebsd.org wrote:
> From: Coleman Kane <zombyfork@gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: OpenBSD's netcat in base or ports?
> To: Avleen Vig <lists-freebsd@silverwraith.com>
> Cc: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org
>
> I agree. I think even tcpdump, libpcap, and ssl stuff should be in
> ports. Currently these are in the src/contrib tree. I know they
> currently have utility there for the base system.
With regard to SSL, of course, you can't readily have SSH without SSL
support, and I assume you wouldn't really want to have the base config
without secure network administration support.
> We moved the base
> away from perl dependence, I think these dependencies should be worked
> out as well. I really dislike -stable and -release
> having out-of-date versions of these packages.
>
> This is only my personal opinion. I think the WITH_XXXX_OVERWITE_BASE
> make options help substantiate it, however.
I respect the virtue of keeping base minimal (and as a Perl fan, I
particularly appreciate it with regard to Perl - it facilitates
installing the desired version.) Not that I have a "vote" in this, but
my opinion falls on the other side for the programs named here,
including netcat as well as tcpdump.
For me one of the more significant uses of netcat, like tcpdump, is
as a troubleshooting/debugging tool. It's *particularly* useful to
have it on a newly installed system if you can't get it on the network,
or can't get some net functionality working. In that case you may not
be able to pull down and build the port.
With netcat I'd even go a little further and say, paraphrasing the
original author, that it's one of those things that just seems like it
should have been in all Unixes from the beginning, along with cat and
sh; providing it feels like correcting an inexplicable omission of a
useful tool for hooking files, sockets, and ports together.
-- Clifton
--
Clifton Royston -- cliftonr@tikitechnologies.com
Tiki Technologies Lead Programmer/Software Architect
"I'm gonna tell my son to grow up pretty as the grass is green
And whip-smart as the English Channel's wide,
And I'm gonna tell my son to keep his money in his mattress
And his watch on any hand between his thighs,
And I'm gonna lock my son up in a tower
Till I write my whole life story on the back of his big brown eyes..."
-- 'Whip-Smart', Liz Phair
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