Re: An experimental patching framework...

[d neal wise <nwise@spy.net>]

hi adrian :)

On Thu, 26 Jul 2001, William Yodlowsky wrote:

> May I counter with another URL:
>
> 	http://openbsd.rutgers.edu/openbsd/binarypatch/
>
> Some time ago a bunch of people formed a mailinglist and put together
> that page.  Some code was produced, but alas everyone has since gone on
> to different things (well not everybody).

feel free (anyone interested) to subscribe to this. we didn't make it
public because we were just bouncing ideas around. It has somewhat
disappeared but it just needs to be stirred :)

majordomo@spy.net
subscribe binpat-l

> While the ports idea is a new one (there've been threads on this
> before--check the archives) the one I really believed in is the packages
> system.  Imagine binary patches for OpenBSD, like the commercial UNIXen
> but better.  Imagine not having to recompile on a reeeeallly slow sparc
> :-)

or having to put development tools or use awkward manual methods on
firewalls to keep them patched

this has obviously been plowed before by lots of other commercial and
non-commercial efforts on nearly ever other unix-like OS.

It would also be very cool to take release OpenBSD and bring it up to date
quickly and easily with packages (or something) built on the release
source plus the patch-branch contents. Ideally these would come from some
verifiable trusted source. i'm getting waaay ahead of myself. i think
william has a list of goals/requirements gathered from the discussions we
were having on the URL above.

> Hopefully the ideas will kickstart the effort (again).

I've been meaning to try some of the work that william and a few other
people were doing but I got busy and on leave. If you're interested Adrian
I can send you an archive of the emails sent through the little list we
set up in may/june so you can get some background on stuff (and other
initial work done by folks)

regards,

neal
___________
d neal wise - nwise@spy.net
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