Re: Proposal: Disable autoload of compat_xyz modules

[Taylor R Campbell <campbell+netbsd-tech-kern%mumble.net@localhost>]

> Date: Wed, 2 Aug 2017 16:11:16 +0000
> From: maya%netbsd.org@localhost
> 
> I can 'cd pkgsrc/www/opera; make install; opera' and get a closed source
> browser that works as is, without even realizing it relies on
> COMPAT_LINUX to work.

% cd www/opera && bmake package
ERROR: This package has set PKG_FAIL_REASON:
ERROR: opera-12.16 has an unacceptable license condition:
ERROR:     opera-1200-license
ERROR: You can mark the license ``opera-1200-license'' as acceptable by adding
ERROR:     ACCEPTABLE_LICENSES+= opera-1200-license
ERROR: to /home/riastradh/pkgsrc/current/pkg/etc/mk.conf or by adding
ERROR:     ACCEPTABLE_LICENSES= opera-1200-license
ERROR: to /home/riastradh/pkgsrc/current/pkg/etc/pkg_install.conf.
ERROR: The following command will show you the license text:
ERROR:     /home/riastradh/pkgsrc/current/pkg/bin/bmake show-license

> Unless some miracle happens, NetBSD will remain an esoteric operating
> system, and we won't have many closed source programs if any. A fairly
> small amount of code gives us access to a large number of programs that
> we would otherwise not have access to.

I'm not proposing removing the code.  Just having a knob to turn it on
before you're exposed to its attack surface.

But it sounds like there are a number of people who want compat_linux
to remain enabled, and of the compat modules I expect it is the best-
maintained, so I will withdraw the proposal to disable it by default.
However, we still need some way to automatically test it so that
developers other than manu@ can apply security fixes without blindly
breaking things.