From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: ng0 Subject: Re: netcat-openbsd implementations Date: Thu, 07 Jul 2016 10:10:08 +0000 Message-ID: <87wpkxzrlr.fsf@we.make.ritual.n0.is> References: <87d1n0fb1c.fsf@we.make.ritual.n0.is> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Return-path: Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:45941) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1bL6GJ-0006uV-C1 for guix-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 07 Jul 2016 06:10:30 -0400 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1bL6GE-0004aO-8F for guix-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 07 Jul 2016 06:10:26 -0400 Received: from 93-95-228-168.1984.is ([93.95.228.168]:41524 helo=beleriand.n0.is) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1bL6GD-0004a5-R3 for guix-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 07 Jul 2016 06:10:22 -0400 In-Reply-To: (Aron Xu's message of "Sun, 3 Jul 2016 17:52:23 +0800") List-Id: "Development of GNU Guix and the GNU System distribution." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: guix-devel-bounces+gcggd-guix-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sender: "Guix-devel" To: Aron Xu Cc: guix-devel@gnu.org Aron Xu writes: > Hi, > > See comment below, > > On Wed, Jun 29, 2016 at 8:13 PM, wrote: >> >> Hi, >> >> I've seen you as the last person commiting to netcat-openbsd >> for Debian in 2012[2]. >> >> I have written a package definition for netcat-openbsd for Guix. >> >> At Guix we don't want to maintain forks through in-tree patchsets >> and avoid it whenever possible. Patches are usually for fixing >> CVEs and fixing severe build problems specific to guix. >> >> Now this is a problem which is reflected in the thread at [0] >> (discussing the netcat-openbsd package). >> >> Resulting from the discussion I have questions for you: >> >> 1. I'd like to know if Debian could merge the specific changes >> applied to the OpenBSD package, available in the patches set, >> into the OpenBSD GNU-linux port. >> If this is not possible, could you give us the reason for it? >> My impression is that at least Gentoo, Gentoo deriviates and >> based systems, Archlinux, and Debian use the orig-source + >> the patches tarball. >> > > This is long overdue - my intention was to keep netcat-openbsd to > track the development of the openbsd one, but it appears not happened > that way. > >> 2. Did you try to merge more generic changes back to OpenBSD? >> >> From what I've seen so far, those are bug fixes and a minority >> of feature fixes. >> > > Some of them was sent, but getting few responses. > >> 3. There's an initial statement in the README but as many of those >> are non-trivial patches, could you try and give an explanation >> on why they are needed, >> if they can't get merged into the Debian orig-source? >> > > I don't treat this netcat-openbsd a full fork even if it's targeting > an older revision at the moment. Also, maintaining patches are very > easy using the git-buildpackage[1] tools for Debian packages. > > [1]https://wiki.debian.org/PackagingWithGit > >> >> Third option I thought of, could Debian provide a tarball of >> the orig-source with the patches applied, so there's no need >> to conflict with systems currently pulling one or both of the >> currently existing tarball. >> > > I think it is hardly possible to provide another tarball because > there's no way of doing that with current Debian infrastructure. But > you can apply those patches easily using quilt[2]. In Debian, patches > are applied automatically when extracting the source package using > dpkg-source. > > [2]https://wiki.debian.org/UsingQuilt > >> We can apply all the patches in a way mentioned here [1], but >> because we collectively maintain all the packages/source instead >> of `n' specific packages per `n' specific developer(s) it would >> be good in case Debian can't merge the changes to be able to >> point to a reason. >> For this, I ask for your permission to quote parts you give me >> permission to use for, should for any reason this email >> discussion not end up completely CC'ed on guix-devel. >> > > No problem. > >> [0]: https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guix-devel/2016-06/msg00843.html >> [1]: https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guix-devel/2016-06/msg00909.html >> [2]: http://anonscm.debian.org/cgit/collab-maint/netcat-openbsd.git/commit/debian?id=db2b1d9a8d4644ef892f47d84606ee96598d23fb >> >> >> thanks, >> -- > > Best, > Aron Thanks for your reply, Aron. It's not very satisfying to read about the reactions of OpenBSD. So what do others make of this? Ludovic, any follow-up thoughts or actions regarding our thread on this? In my opinion we could apply the patches like you suggested, in the source and not as in-tree patches. -- ♥Ⓐ ng0 For non-prism friendly talk find me on http://www.psyced.org SecuShare – http://secushare.org