FreeBSD Status Report

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Newsgroups: fa.freebsd.hackers
Original-Date: Sun, 3 Mar 2002 13:52:53 -0500 (EST)
From: Robert Watson <rwat...@freebsd.org>
To: develop...@freebsd.org, hack...@freebsd.org
Subject: December 2001, January 2002 Bi-Monthly FreeBSD Status Report
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  Attached below, please find the text version of the bi-monthloy status
  report.  It's actually been up on the web for a few days.  Apologies for
  any delays :-).  It's worth noting that report submission has dropped
  off a bit for this report, and I hope for better on the next report, for
  which I'll begin to collect entries in about three weeks.



                   December 2001 - January 2002 Status Report

                                  Introduction

   This bi-monthly report covers development activities on the FreeBSD
   Project for December 2001 and January 2002. A variety of accomplishments
   have been made over the last couple of months, including strong progress
   relating to the KSE project, which brings Scheduler Activations to the
   FreeBSD kernel, as well as less visible infrastructure projects such as
   improvements to the mount interface, PAM integration work, and translation
   efforts. Shortly following the deadline for this status report, the BSD
   Conference and FreeBSD Developer Summit were held, and will be covered in
   the next bi-monthly report at the end of March. Plans are already under
   way for the USENIX Annual Technical Conference in Monterey, CA, later this
   year, and all and sundry are encouraged to attend to get further insight
   in FreeBSD development.

   Robert Watson

     * "GEOM" - generalized block storage manipulation
     * Bluetooth stack for FreeBSD (Netgraph implementation)
     * FreeBSD C99 & POSIX Conformance Project
     * FreeBSD in Bulgarian
     * FreeBSD Java Project
     * jp.FreeBSD.org daily SNAPSHOTs project
     * jpman project
     * KAME
     * KSE Status Report
     * Netgraph ATM
     * New mount(2) API
     * Pluggable Authentication Modules
     * Revised {mode,log}page support for camcontrol
     * SMPng
     * TrustedBSD ACLs
     * TrustedBSD Audit
     * TrustedBSD MAC Implementation
     * USB stack maintenance

"GEOM" - generalized block storage manipulation

   URL: http://www.freebsd.org/~phk/Geom/

   Contact: Poul-Henning Kamp <p...@FreeBSD.org>

   This project is now finally underway, thanks to DARPA and NAI getting a
   sponsorship lined up. The infrastructure code and data structures are
   currently taking form inside a userland simulation harness. Basic MBR and
   BSD methods have been written and device attach/taste/dettach algorithms
   been implemented and validated.

     ----------------------------------------------------------------------

Bluetooth stack for FreeBSD (Netgraph implementation)

   Contact: Maksim Yevmenkin <m_evmen...@yahoo.com>

   The project is making progress. The goal is to design and implement Host
   Controller Interface (HCI) and Link Layer Control and Adaptation Protocol
   (L2CAP) layers using Netgraph framework. More distant goal is to write
   support for Service Discovery Protocol (SDP) and RFCOMM protocol (Serial
   port emulation over Bluetooth link) . All information was obtained from
   Bluetooth Specification Book v1.1.

   Project status: In progress. 1) Design: mostly complete, there are some
   minor issues to be resolved. 2) Implementation: Kernel - HCI and L2CAP
   Netgraph nodes have been implemented; 3) User space (API, library,
   utilities) - in progress. 4) Testing: In progress. I do not have real
   Bluetooth hardware at this point, so i wrote some tools that allow me to
   test the code. Some of them will be used as foundation for future user
   space utilities.

   Issues: 1) Bluetooth hardware; I do not have real Bluetooth hardware, so
   if people can donate hardware/specs it would be great. I promise to write
   all required drivers and make them available. I also promise to return
   hardware/specs on first request. 2) Project name; I would like to see the
   name that reflects the following: it is a Bluetooth stack, implementation
   is for FreeBSD and implementation is based on Netgraph framework

     ----------------------------------------------------------------------

FreeBSD C99 & POSIX Conformance Project

   URL: http://people.FreeBSD.org/~mike/c99/

   Contact: Mike Barcroft <m...@FreeBSD.org>
   Contact: FreeBSD-Standards Mailing List <standa...@FreeBSD.org>

   A significant amount of progress was made in December and January,
   particularly in the area of utility conformance. Several utilities were
   updated to conform to SUSv3, they include: at(1), mailx(1), pwd(1),
   split(1), and uudecode(1). Several patches have been submitted to increase
   conformance in other utilities, they include: fold(1), patch(1), m4(1),
   nice(1), pr(1), renice(1), wc(1), and xargs(1). These are in the process
   of being reviewed and committed. Two new utilities have been written,
   specifically pathchk(1) and tabs(1). These are also being reviewed and
   will be committed shortly.

   A patch which implements most of the requirements of scanf(3) is being
   reviewed and is expected to be committed shortly. This will allow us to
   MFC a number of new functions and headers. Additionally, work has started
   on wide string and complex number support.

     ----------------------------------------------------------------------

FreeBSD in Bulgarian

   URL: http://www.FreeBSD-bg.ringlet.net/
   URL: http://people.FreeBSD.org/~roam/bg/

   Contact: Peter Pentchev <r...@FreeBSD.org>

   The FreeBSD in Bulgarian project aims to bring a more comfortable working
   environment to Bulgarian users of the FreeBSD OS. This includes, but is
   not limited to, font, keymap and locale support, translation of the
   FreeBSD documentation into Bulgarian, local user groups and various forms
   of on-line help channels and discussion forums to help Bulgarians adopt
   and use FreeBSD.

   A guide for using FreeBSD with Bulgarian settings has been put up on the
   project's website. The CVS repository will be made public shortly, linked
   to on the URL's above.

   An independent project for making FreeBSD easier to use by Bulgarians has
   appeared, . It also hosts a mailing list for discussions of FreeBSD in
   Bulgarian, sta...@FreeBSD-bg.org. For more information about the mailing
   list, send an e-mail with "help" in the message body to
   majord...@FreeBSD-bg.org.

     ----------------------------------------------------------------------

FreeBSD Java Project

   URL: http://www.freebsd.org/java

   Contact: Greg Lewis <gle...@eyesbeyond.com>

   The past two months have been an exciting time in the FreeBSD Java Project
   with the signing of a license between the FreeBSD Foundation and Sun
   allowing us access to updated JDK source code and the Java Compatibility
   Kit (JCK). This license will also allow the project to release a binary
   version of both the JDK and JRE once JCK testing is complete. Work on this
   testing is under way with the project hopeful of being able to make a
   binary release in the not too distant future.

   In lieu of the binary release which was hoped for with FreeBSD 4.5 the
   project will release an updated source patchset this weekend. This
   patchset will feature further work on the FreeBSD "native" threads
   subsystem from Bill Huey. Also, thanks to hard work by Joe Kelsey and
   Fuyuhiko Maruyama, the patchset will for the first time feature a working
   Java browser plugin!

     ----------------------------------------------------------------------

jp.FreeBSD.org daily SNAPSHOTs project

   URL: http://snapshots.jp.FreeBSD.org/
   URL: http://www.jp.FreeBSD.org/snapshots/notes.html

   Contact: Makoto Matsushita <matus...@jp.FreeBSD.org>

   I've update OS of buildboxes to the latest FreeBSD 5-current and 4-stable.
   Everything goes fine. From January 2002, I've started a webzine, SNAPSHOTS
   Notes (only Japanese version is available). SNAPSHOTs Notes pickups tips
   and information especially for the people living with FreeBSD
   5-current/4-stable. Article or idea for SNAPSHOTs notes are always welcome
   (you don't need to write in Japanese :-).

     ----------------------------------------------------------------------

jpman project

   URL: http://www.jp.FreeBSD.org/man-jp/

   Contact: Kazuo Horikawa <horik...@FreeBSD.org>

   For 4.5-RELEASE, port ja-man-doc-4.5.tgz is in sync with base system
   except for OpenSSH pages (OpenSSH 2.3 based instead of 2.9) and perl5
   pages (jpman project do not maintain). Section 3 updating has 55%
   finished.

   OKAZAKI Tetsurou has incorporated changes on base system's groff into port
   japanese/groff. MORI Kouji has fixed two bugs of port japanese/man.

     ----------------------------------------------------------------------

KAME

   URL: http://www.kame.net/

   Contact: KAME core team <c...@kame.net>

   The KAME project is currently focusing on the scoped addressing
   architecture, the advanced API implementation, NATPT and the mobile ipv6
   implementation. Though these stuffs are not stable enough to be merge into
   the FreeBSD tree, you can get and try them from the above URL.

     ----------------------------------------------------------------------

KSE Status Report

   URL: http://www.freebsd.org/~julian/
   URL: http://www.freebsd.org/~jasone/kse/

   Contact: Julian Elischer <jul...@FreeBSD.org>

   The KSE project (an attempt to support scalable thread in FreeBSD using
   kernel support), has reached What I call "milestone 3". At this milestone
   it is possible to run a multithreaded program on a single CPU but with
   full concurrancy of threads on that CPU. In other words the kernel
   supports the fact that one thread can block by allowing another thread to
   run in its place. A test program that demonstrates this is available at
   the above website.

   Milestone 4 will be to allow threads from the same program to run on
   multiple CPUS but may require more input from the SMPNG project. I am at
   the moment (Feb 6) getting ready to commit a first set of changes for
   milestone 3, that have no real effect but serve to drastically reduce the
   complexity of the remaining diff so that others can read it mor eeasily.
   After changes to libkvm to support this diff have been added it should be
   possible to run 'ps' and look at multiple threads in a treaded process. I
   will be demonstrating KSE/M3 at BSDcon.

     ----------------------------------------------------------------------

Netgraph ATM

   URL: ftp://ftp.fokus.gmd.de/pub/cc/cats/usr/harti/ngatm/

   Contact: Harti Brandt <bra...@fokus.gmd.de>

   The Netgraph ATM package has been split into a number of smaller packages:
   bsnmp is a general-purpose SNMP daemon with support for loadable modules.
   Two modules come with it: one implementing the standard network-interface
   and IP related parts of MIB-2 and one for interfacing other modules to the
   NetGraph sub-system. ngatmbase contains the drivers for the ATM hardware,
   the ng_atm netgraph type and a few test tools. This package allows one to
   use ATM PVCs. It should be possible, for example, to do PPP over ATM with
   this package. Both bsnmp and ngatmbase are available in version 1.0 under
   the link above. Two other modules will be released in february: ngatmsig
   containing the UNI-4.0 signalling stack as netgraph nodes and ngatmip
   containing CLIP and LANE-2.0.

     ----------------------------------------------------------------------

New mount(2) API

   Contact: Poul-Henning Kamp <p...@FreeBSD.org>
   Contact: Maxime Henrion <m...@sneakerz.org>

   Now that the patch has been mailed to the freebsd-a...@freebsd.org mailing
   list, and that there were no objections, the commit will happen soon. Poul
   is currently testing it in his own tree. After it has been committed, it
   will be time to modify the filesystems in the tree to use VFS_NMOUNT
   instead of VFS_MOUNT. Mount(8) will also need some modifications. Some new
   manpages -- nmount(2) and kernel_vmount(9) -- are being created in the
   meantime.

     ----------------------------------------------------------------------

Pluggable Authentication Modules

   URL: http://openpam.sourceforge.net/

   Contact: Mark Murray <ma...@FreeBSD.org>
   Contact: Dag-Erling Smo/rgrav <d...@FreeBSD.org>

   OpenPAM, a new library intended to replace Linux-PAM in FreeBSD, has been
   written and is undergoing integration testing. It is available for
   download from the URL listed above.

   In addition to this, a couple of new modules have been written
   (pam_lastlog(8), pam_login_access(8)), and the pam_unix(8) module has been
   extended to perform most of the tasks normally performed by login(1),
   which is now fully PAMified.

   The PAM FDP article has been put on hold until OpenPAM replaces Linux-PAM
   in CVS, to avoid wasting effort on soon-to-be obsolete documentation.

     ----------------------------------------------------------------------

Revised {mode,log}page support for camcontrol

   Contact: Kelly Yancey <kby...@FreeBSD.org>

   Extending camcontrol's page definition file format to include both
   modepage and logpage definitions; adding support to camcontrol to query
   and reset log page parameters. Consideration is being made to possibly
   include support for diagnostic and vital product data pages, but that is
   outside the current project scope. New page definition file format
   includes capability to conditionally include page definitions based on
   SCSI INQUIRY results allowing vendor-specific pages to be described also.
   Approximately 90% complete.

     ----------------------------------------------------------------------

SMPng

   URL: http://www.FreeBSD.org/smp/

   Contact: s...@FreeBSD.org <s...@FreeBSD.org>

   Alfred Perlstein commited file descriptor locking code which was definetly
   a good push towards trying to lock down some important pieces of global
   data. Peter Wemm has made progress on pmap cleanups for x86 SMP TLB
   shootdowns. Matt Dillon and John Baldwin have made progress on getting
   patches done for moving accesses to ucred's out from under Giant's
   protection. John Baldwin has also made some commits in order to get the
   alpha port's SMP working. Matt Dillon has plans for hunting down fileops
   locking issues in order to continue his previous Giant pushdown work.

     ----------------------------------------------------------------------

TrustedBSD ACLs

   URL: http://www.fxp.org/jedgar/ACL/

   Contact: Chris Faulhaber <jed...@FreeBSD.org>

   Patches for cp(1), ls(1), and mv(1) to bring in POSIX.1e-compliant Access
   Control List support have been updated to patch against builds of
   -CURRENT. Other system utilities are currently being evaluated for ACL
   support including install(1) (patch available) and mtree(8). Work is in
   progress to verify the native getfacl(1), setfacl(1), and other utilities
   build and work correctly on other ACL-enabled systems (e.g. Linux w/ACL
   patches) and to help verify POSIX-compliance of the continuing TrustedBSD
   work along with other systems. Finally, experimental Perl and PHP modules
   are available allowing limited access to native ACLs for languages other
   than C.

     ----------------------------------------------------------------------

TrustedBSD Audit

   URL: http://www.TrustedBSD.org/

   Contact: trustedbsd-discuss <trustedbsd-disc...@TrustedBSD.org>

   Robert Watson created the TrustedBSD audit perforce tree, which is a
   branch from the TrustedBSD base tree, in order to start pushing
   development efforts towards using a revision control system. Andrew Reiter
   started to merge in some framework related code for generation of audit
   records, enqueueing writes, and handling data writing. There is a great
   deal of work to be done with updates and discussion on the
   trustedbsd-disc...@TrustedBSD.org mailing list.

     ----------------------------------------------------------------------

TrustedBSD MAC Implementation

   URL: http://www.TrustedBSD.org/

   Contact: Robert Watson <rwat...@FreeBSD.org>

   Substantial progress has been made towards a working MAC implementation.
   The focus over the last two months has been moving from a hard-coded
   series of MAC policies to a more flexible implementation. A pluggable
   policy framework has been created (and is still under development),
   supporting Biba, MLS, TE, a "BSD Extended" model, and a sample mac_none
   module. Some modules must be compiled in or loaded prior to boot; others
   may be introduced at run-time. Support for networking has improved, with
   improved handling of IP fragmentation in IPv4, support for various
   pseudo-interfaces such as if_tun and if_tap, improved integration into
   userland, NFS-related fixes, moving the VFS enforcement out of individual
   filesystems, support for a 'multilevel' mount flag, support for explicit
   labeling in procfs and devfs, addition of an 'extattrctl lsattr' argument
   to list EAs on a filesystem, support for label ranges in the Biba and MAC
   policies, and much more.

   Targets for the next two months include more universal enforcement of
   VFS-related calls, improved support for alternative ABIs, improved
   flexibility of in-kernel subject and object labels, support for IPv6 and
   IPsec, and improved support for NFS serving.

   Development continues in the FreeBSD Perforce repository, which may be
   accessed using cvsup.

     ----------------------------------------------------------------------

USB stack maintenance

   Contact: Josef Karthauser <j...@FreeBSD.org>

   I've been working to integrate recent improvements in the NetBSD usb stack
   to FreeBSD -current. Both NetBSD and OpenBSD currently share the same
   source, as FreeBSD did too at once point before it diverged. The goal is
   to get back to that state, but there are many improvements on both sides
   that need to be merged before this is complete.

   I'm currently looking for someone to help maintain usb in -stable. Please
   let me know if you're interested.




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