Future of pf / firewall in FreeBSD ? - does it have one ?

[Odhiambo Washington]

On 20 July 2014 21:12, Polytropon <freebsd at edvax.de> wrote:

> On Sun, 20 Jul 2014 13:41:33 -0400, Alexander Kabaev wrote:
> > It was stated repeatedly by multiple people that FreeBSD's network
> > stack is way too different from OpenBSD, we support features
> > OpenBSD doesn't and vice versa, vimage is a good example, which throws a
> > giant wrench into the plan of following OpenBSD 'as closely as
> > possible', even as the expense of throwing away all of the SMP work
> > done in pf to date.
>
> The difference between FreeBSD's and OpenBSD's network stack
> is also a problem that you can hardly compensate by maintaining
> two versions of pf, one provided with the system, one available
> via ports (as FreeBSD 10 did with unbound / bind), and you also
> would have to decide which version ("old" or "new") goes with
> the OS and which comes from ports. Of course following a "moving
> target" is much easier to do with ports (higher frequency of
> changes is possible) than with an OS component, and I should
> emphasize OS _core_ component, as pf is _very_ tightly integrated
> with kernel and OS mechanisms.
>
> Learning a new syntax is the smallest problem here, and BSD folks
> (as UNIX people in general) have a great reputation of being able
> to learn new things, evaluate them, and use them as needed, in
> comparison to those poor guys over in MICROS~1 land... ;-)
>
>
So to summarize (probably):

Someone needs to decide whether or not they want FreeBSD or OpenBSD when it
comes to PF.
It's a simple decision to make:)
You draw a two-column table with FreeBSD and OpenBSD on each one, do your
analysis and decide where to pledge your allegiance.

Debate CLOSED!

-- 
Best regards,
Odhiambo WASHINGTON,
Nairobi,KE
+254733744121/+254722743223
"I can't hear you -- I'm using the scrambler."