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Date:      Sun, 07 Aug 2005 10:48:45 -0600
From:      Scott Long <scottl@samsco.org>
To:        "M. Warner Losh" <imp@bsdimp.com>
Cc:        cperciva@freebsd.org, freebsd-arch@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Adding portsnap to the base system
Message-ID:  <42F63B6D.3080909@samsco.org>
In-Reply-To: <20050807.101746.68985623.imp@bsdimp.com>
References:  <42F62C5F.6000609@freebsd.org> <20050807.101746.68985623.imp@bsdimp.com>

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M. Warner Losh wrote:
> In message: <42F62C5F.6000609@freebsd.org>
>             Colin Percival <cperciva@freebsd.org> writes:
> : I've been told by a committer that there hasn't been enough
> : discussion about the merits of adding portsnap to the base
> : system.
> : 
> : The basic summary, for anyone who didn't read yesterday's
> : thread, is that portsnap is a secure, easy to use, fast,
> : low-bandwidth, and lightweight way to keep the ports tree
> : up to date.  It is currently used by about 2000 systems each
> : week (based on my server logs; and increasing at a rate of
> : about 50% per month).  The feedback I've had from users has
> : been universally glowing, aside from the complaints that it
> : really should be in the base system already.
> : 
> : Portsnap is not a complete replacement for CVSup -- it only
> : handles ports, and it only handles the tree, not the repo --
> : but it is very good at doing the job it is designed for.
> : 
> : Discuss.
> 
> I'm confused.  Earlier in this thread it looked like someone said it
> distributed binaries.  Now this seems to indicate it is just cvsup in
> checkout mode.  Which is it?  And when posting questions like this, it
> is usually good to include pointers to documentation (although the
> diff below does contain the man pages).
> 
> : Unless I hear any complaints, I'm going to commit the following
> : patch tomorrow:
> : http://www.daemonology.net/tmp/portsnap-base.diff
> 
> Is there some reason you've reinvated fetch as well?  What does
> phttpget do that fetch(1) or fetch(3) doesn't?  The only thing that
> looks like it might is pipelining mode, which would be better in the
> base fetch program, imho.
> 
> neither make_index nor phttpget have man pages.
> 
> What does this buy you over cvsup/cvsupd?
> 
> Warner

I'll save Colin from repeating the answer to this for the millionth time.

1.  security
2.  much lower bandwidth
3.  why are you quibbling over a feature that is 40k, has already been 
well tested, and has the support and desires of users?  If you're really
concerned about confusion and duplication, I see plenty of much more 
worthy opportunities in the pccard/cardbus, natm/patm/hatm, etc spaces.

Scott



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