ipfilter(4) needs maintainer

Gleb Smirnoff glebius at FreeBSD.org
Thu Apr 11 20:18:08 UTC 2013


  Hello,

  here is brief status on ipfilter(4) packet filtering facility,
written by Darren Reed, that is shipped with FreeBSD kernel.

o The version of the software is v4.1.28. The license is BSD, .. erm
  the license is very close to BSD, but with some additions, most
  notable is: 

> The licence and distribution terms for any publically available version or
> derivative of this code cannot be changed. i.e. this code cannot simply be
> copied, in part or in whole, and put under another distribution licence
> [including the GNU Public Licence.]

  The version we have is v4.1.28, it was released 16 October 2007.

  Suprisingly, the author has switched ipfilter license to GPL. :) The
  last release under BSD license was v4.1.34, released 11 MArch 2010.

  The author is now working on v5, licensed under GPL.

o There are 29 open bug reports tagged with [ipfilter] in GNATS. Actually
  this is not a lot, since there 95 closed PRs with this tag. Anyway,
  these 29 need care.

o Apart from filed PRs, there is knowledge that ipfilter(4) isn't
  compatible with VIMAGE.

o ipfilter(4) uses old outdated kernel APIs that we want to cleanse
  away from the kernel. And we don't have responsive users, willing
  to test patches. For example, this request for testing wasn't
  answered by anyone:

http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-net/2012-August/033139.html


Due to license change and inactivity of the author in our tree and
GNATS, there is clear evidence that author do not plan to update or
take care of ipfilter in our source tree. Thus, ipfilter(4) should be
assigned status of our code, that should be taken care of ourselves.

This means it needs maintainer, and this email is a call for one.
Any takers?

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.

P.S. The project homepage: http://coombs.anu.edu.au/~avalon/

-- 
Totus tuus, Glebius.


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