Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2003 15:56:19 +0100 From: Paul Robinson <paul@iconoplex.co.uk> To: "James P. Howard II" <howardjp@vocito.com> Cc: sphaleotas@blueyonder.co.uk Subject: Re: RMS says: 'Use BSD, for goodness sake!' Message-ID: <20030626145619.GG57378@iconoplex.co.uk> In-Reply-To: <52142.198.137.241.12.1056637026.squirrel@m.vocito.com> References: <4.3.2.7.2.20030625214311.00e5e240@localhost> <20030626010357.J508@hub.org> <20030626110336.GW34365@iconoplex.co.uk> <52142.198.137.241.12.1056637026.squirrel@m.vocito.com>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On Thu, Jun 26, 2003 at 10:17:06AM -0400, James P. Howard II wrote: > > bzip2 - could be reimplemented > > This isn't GPLd. Agreed - the "GPL grep" that caught this one seems to be referring to a comment about using Memtest86 to debug the code if need be, and it's memtest86 which is GPL. > > cpio - reimplement from man page, or replace/remove requirement for > > cpio is required by standards. OpenBSD reimplemented using pax. Use that one then? > > cvs - Don't need this do we? :-) look at another version control? > > If rcs were rewritten, this would be a walk in the park. Or come up with an implementation of CVS under a BSD license. > ports/misc/freedialog, something I did in 1999. Just a wrapper for the > library, though. The library is LGPLd. That's cheating. :-) The aim is to see how hard it would be to remove all GPL from the base, and how much could be pushed out to ports. As dialog is used in /stand/sysinstall (IIRC), needs a re-implementation. But let's not do the installer bikeshed again just now. > > grep - the issue here is the regexp, otherwise re-implement. > > OpenBSD on Sunday removed GNU grep in favor of freegrep, which was another > project from 1999. It was a busy couple of months :) Cripes. There's another one then. > > groff - look at alternate doc formatting? > > Not likely. Every man-page ever written needs groff. OK, re-implement then. Doesn't stop the search for a better format for man pages and writing a converter. Be daring! :-) > > gzip - nasty, but re-implementable. Or we move to a non-GNU zip format. > > libz itself is freely reusable. Writing a wrapper should not be difficult. Another tick. > > less - re-implementable quite quickly > > I am not sure this is GPLd. The "GPL grep monkey" played it's trick again, and was actually referring to this: version.c:v342 7/22/99 Add system-wide lesskey file; allow GPL or Less License. So, GPL is allowed, but the one I have here on 4-STABLE is the "Less License" which looks similar to a BSD license. > > libreadline - big one to replace, IMHO > > Dump it. What in the tree needs it? gdb is, I think, it and any future > rewrite of gdb can use libedit. I could really do with a dependancy map of FreeBSD right now. So, if it was moved out to a port, you don't think it would break anything? I'll rm it and do a buildworld tonight on 4-STABLE, 5.1-R and -CURRENT. See what it breaks. I would have thought it was being used still, but... we'll see. > > man - could be re-implemented based on file format information known > > man is a wrapper for groff -Tascii -mdoc (okay, there is a bit more, but > it would not be difficult). It's a fair bit more to be honest.. "man man" shows that man is capable of a bit more than just calling groff. > > ptx - remove/replace/re-implement. Probably the former. > > ptx is already gone. It's in 4-STABLE still. MFC the removal? > > rcs - remove and make an optional package? > > If you keep cvs, rcs is kind of useful to have around. But cvs should be a port/package anyway... ? > > send-pr - remove! OK, re-implement, if you must. :-) > > It's a dozen-line shell script, easily redoable. Actually, without lines that start with a #, it's 508 lines, but I see what you're saying.. > > sort - another undergrad project based on the man page > > OpenBSD has a replacement. Tick! > > tar - find alternative, or re-implement > > OpenBSD redid using pax. Tick! > > texinfo - find alternative, or remove from base > > If the rest of the GNU tree were gone, texinfo would not be necessary :) :-) So, options for removing everything except gcc/cc, the related paraphenalia (as, ld, etc.), groff and dialog. Might need to keep bc/dc as they are if the precision thing is important. Anything missed? -- Paul Robinson
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?20030626145619.GG57378>