From owner-freebsd-current Sun Jun 27 1:31:36 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from smtp02.wxs.nl (smtp02.wxs.nl [195.121.6.60]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8C89F14C96 for ; Sun, 27 Jun 1999 01:31:32 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from asmodai@wxs.nl) Received: from daemon.ninth-circle.org ([195.121.197.116]) by smtp02.wxs.nl (Netscape Messaging Server 3.61) with ESMTP id AAB6BF5; Sun, 27 Jun 1999 10:31:30 +0200 Received: (from asmodai@localhost) by daemon.ninth-circle.org (8.9.3/8.9.3) id KAA22443; Sun, 27 Jun 1999 10:12:00 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from asmodai) Date: Sun, 27 Jun 1999 10:11:59 +0200 From: Jeroen Ruigrok/Asmodai To: Warner Losh Cc: current@FreeBSD.org, tech-kern@netbsd.org, tech@openbsd.org Subject: Re: General feeling on merging APIs... Message-ID: <19990627101159.C21719@daemon.ninth-circle.org> References: <199906270422.WAA08307@harmony.village.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii User-Agent: Mutt/0.96.3i In-Reply-To: <199906270422.WAA08307@harmony.village.org>; from Warner Losh on Sat, Jun 26, 1999 at 10:22:29PM -0600 Sender: owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG * Warner Losh (imp@harmony.village.org) [990627 09:02]: > In message <199906251653.KAA01796@caspian.plutotech.com> "Justin T. Gibbs" writes: > : The hope is to provide a consistent interface across > : all *BSDs which is why I've addressed this to all of the *BSD projects. > > More generally, I'd like to identify areas where the kernel APIs of > the various projects have diverged and see what, if anything, can be > done about them. I'd also like to get commitment from the various > controlling bodies of the *BSD projects to a statement something along > the lines of: Nice to see interest about this, it means a lot to me that the three BSD's, all with their own fun in use, etc, are willing to work together on this goal. Also, what I am doing with the PDP (here he goes again) is that I am trying to determine which BSD got which function where and in what version. Would make an excellent reference for people wanting to get something running on all three BSD's. (btw, ignore any FreeBSD words in the PDP, I am currently making it *BSD.) > We support the identification of API differences between the > various BSDs. We generally support the idea of merging the > APIs, but reserve the right to veto anything too radical. Sounds like a nice stance, however (not saying you did Warner) it _is_ absolutely fundamental that we, as the three BSD's speaking, put back ego's where it's technical excellence that counts. Private agenda's never served someone. So I myself am counting on the maturity of the participants to discuss technical internals and not moving to ego-talk. Note, this isn't about merging all the three BSD's back together. It's merely about making the API not too diverse/different from each other. (together we stand, divided we fall - cliche, but true) To clue in the OpenBSD people who haven't been reading tech-kern of NetBSD, it started when I pointed out to Bill Sommerfeld that FreeBSD already had an asleep function, which he was about to implement. A good function, but substantially different from FreeBSD's asleep, that I didn't think it was a good idea to just let Bill continue without warning him at least, as well as Matthew Dillon (original writer of FreeBSD's asleep()). Can we say at least, that the core 4.4BSD functions have remained largely/ almost the same across the 3 BSD's? Can we point out at least a few areas in which we differ? Are there differences spotted at hand which can be resolved on short time? > I've been trying to put together some compatibility shims for > newconfig drivers in FreeBSD's new-bus world and have run accross a > number of minor differences that would be trivial to fix. That sounds like a good thing Warner. Any more to tell about this wrt NetBSD and OpenBSD? Looking forward to hear from the lot of you, -- Jeroen Ruigrok van der Werven asmodai(at)wxs.nl The *BSD Programmer's Documentation Project Network/Security Specialist *BSD: We are back and will not accept no... To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message