[openbeosnetteam] Re: porting FreeBSD's new netstack

Damned, in the post-Master mess, I totally miss these posts!

> the netstack of FreeBSD 5.3 will have some nice features and speed 
> improvements. Additionally, their netstack is finally thread-safe 
> (and 
> multi-threaded). Our netstack is a port of an older version and thus 
> not 
> thread-safe.
> I did not port that beast, so I do not know what is harder to do:
> - port the new netstack
> - make our netstack thread-safe and extend with functionality 
> (non-blocking support, etc.)

Both imply to dive in BSD stack source code internal.
I guess it means both are hard to do, but at least their newest code 
may give us up-to-date knowlegde.

> IMHO, it would be very useful if we had a nice port including 
> documentation about changes made to the port. If we can create a 
> layer 
> around the stack's core and module layers around the protocols it 
> might 
> become rather easy to port new releases and always have an up-to-date 
> and stable netstack. While we maintain the port we can also slowly 
> write 
> our own stack, compare speeds, and improve it until it is better and 
> at 
> the same time smaller and cleaner.
> 
> What do you think? How much work would a new port (we can reuse 
> existing 
> code and experience) and fixing/extending the current port mean?

Well, dunno, really.
Our current stack seems so near to reach a final alpha stage (DHCP is 
missing, mostly), it sounds radical to drop pretty much all the meat to 
start again. But maybe it's the momentum we, as a team (including me), 
need.

I guess it's time I give a look at FreeBSD 5.3 net stack code...

- Philippe

--
Fortune Cookie Says:

Bringing computers into the home won't change either one, but may
revitalize the corner saloon.

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