Subject: Re: Organization of MacBSD
To: None <ADAMGOOD@delphi.com>
From: David A. Gatwood <marsmail@globegate.utm.edu>
List: port-mac68k
Date: 04/29/1997 14:04:55
> I was just looking at Puma to get the newest binaries because mine are
> from the 1.1 release, and there was nothing in the current directory

Try ftp.netbsd.org under... pub/NetBSD/arch/mac68k I believe, or
thereabouts.  There should be a couple of -current directories, depending
on how current you'd like to be.  :-)

> of NetBSD!  There was a bunch of stuff in the OpenBSD directories, but
> I have no idea what that is, or if it'll work with a NetBSD kernel.

Probably most of the stuff that isn't particularly kernel-dependent (i.e.
everything but w, ps, etc.) should, but other incompatibilities may exist
that I don't know about.  Basically all the stuff with libkvm statically
linked.

> The Web pages say nothing about this organization of the FTP site, and
> there are always postings to the list regarding GENERIC kernels that I
> can't find anywhere.  For example, I just saw post saying that GENERIC#29
> contains PowerBook support, but where is GENERIC#29?

Again, in the aforementioned directory, there's a subdir for kernels.

> What's the difference between OpenBSD and NetBSD?  Where is current?  Can't

A. politics, mostly.  Some differences to the non-machine-specific parts
of the kernels, but similar, I think.  According to OpenBSD's pages, there
are some bug fixes and stuff that NetBSD hasn't bothered to correct (which
may give some indication of their importance and impact :-). I think I
read that there were some differences in the userland stuff, too.  If
there's one place that NetBSD is lacking somewhat, it would be there, in
the programs that users actually run.

B. semi-current is on ftp.netbsd.org, generally.  "To-the-minute" current
is, of course, only available as source.  The last -current tarball of
compiled stuff was... April 2, I think.  Probably delayed a day to prevent
any anxiety that otherwise might develop while downloading it.  :-)

> It seems like things are at the point where almost every 68k Mac could be
> a NetBSD box.  It's a shame if a lack of simple directions and information
> confuse people and make it difficult for them to access all the hard work
> that has been done.

As more and more stuff gets added to -current, yeah.  I think that usually
it becomes more obvious for a while shortly after releases and then drops
off, in that -current is technically not "general use" versions.  Kind of
the old YMMV thing.  The best source for -currrent info is probably
Colin's FAQ/Meta-FAQ combo (the Meta-FAQ tells about sources for files and
distributions and such things).  They're on www.macbsd.com/macbsd
somewhere (follow the links).  :-) 


Later,
David