On Fri, Apr 12, 2013 at 11:31:09PM -0600, Scott Long wrote: > > On Apr 12, 2013, at 7:43 PM, Rui Paulo <rpa...@freebsd.org> wrote: > > > On 2013/04/11, at 13:18, Gleb Smirnoff <gleb...@freebsd.org> wrote: > > > >> Lack of maintainer in a near future would lead to bitrot due to changes > >> in other areas of network stack, kernel APIs, etc. This already happens, > >> many changes during 10.0-CURRENT cycle were only compile tested wrt > >> ipfilter. If we fail to find maintainer, then a correct decision would be > >> to remove ipfilter(4) from the base system before 10.0-RELEASE. > > > > This has been discussed in the past. Every time someone came up and said > > "I'm still using ipfilter!" and the idea to remove it dies with it. > > I've been saying we should remove it for 4 years now. Not only it's > > outdated but it also doesn't not fit well in the FreeBSD roadmap. Then > > there's the question of maintainability. We gave the author a commit bit so > > that he could maintain it. That doesn't happen anymore and it sounds like > > he has since moved away from FreeBSD. I cannot find any reason to burden > > another FreeBSD developer with maintaining ipfilter. > > > > One thing that FreeBSD is bad about (and this really applies to many open > source projects) when deprecating something is that the developer and release > engineering groups rarely provide adequate, if any, tools to help users > transition and cope with the deprecation. The fear of deprecation can be > largely overcome by giving these users a clear and comprehensive path > forward. Just announcing "ipfilter is going away. EOM" is inadequate and > leads to completely justified complaints from users. > > So with that said, would it be possible to write some tutorials on how to > migrate an ipfilter installation to pf? Maybe some mechanical syntax docs > accompanied by a few case studies? Is it possible for a script to automate > some of the common mechanical changes? Also essential is a clear document on > what goes away with ipfilter and what is gained with pf. Once those tools > are written, I suggest announcing that ipfilter is available but > deprecated/unsupported in FreeBSD 10, and will be removed from FreeBSD 11. > Certain people will still pitch a fit about it departing, but if the tools > are there to help the common users, you'll be successful in winning mindshare > and general support. >
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