Deprecating base system ftpd?

Dave Cottlehuber
Sun, 04 Apr 2021 23:25:29 -0000

> On 03/04/2021 22:39, Ed Maste wrote:
> > I propose deprecating the ftpd currently included in the base system
> > before FreeBSD 14, and opened review D26447
> > (https://reviews.freebsd.org/D26447) to add a notice to the man page.
> > I had originally planned to try to do this before 13.0, but it dropped
> > off my list. FTP is not nearly as relevant now as it once was, and it
> > had a security vulnerability that secteam had to address.
> >
> > I'm happy to make a port for it if anyone needs it. Comments?

+1 for port. I suspect I last used an FTPd in anger sometime in late 90s,
and I surmise this is the vast majority.

We will have a very small # of users who require FTPd at all, to make their
systems useful.

An even smaller # of those users will be unable to use FreeBSD if FTPd is
only available in a pkg.

For those objecting, are you *really* in that latter category -- are
these boxes running without a single port/package installed?

When 13.0 goes EOL, somewhere after 2025, will you *still* need ftpd in
14.0 base? It seems a reasonable delay, even for a large corporate, to
accommodate this change, which can be done in less time than reading
this email.

Ian's point about preserving paths is a reasonable one, but I had to add
an ntpd user in last updates, this would be less difficult.

Eugene mentioned the convenience of ftpd in the same sentence as ipsec.
I'm willing to bet those systems have ports installed too.

If speed is an issue, HTTP supports pipelining, compression, chunked
encoding, & parallel connections. I'm not sure ftpd is even in the same
game anymore.

The more code we hang onto in base, the larger the millstone around our
necks when moving forwards. Each individual opportunity to slim down
base *in itself* is not significant, but cumulatively they represent
gridlock.

For each removal or deprecation, please consider, is this worth holding
the project back for?

# /etc/src.conf
WITHOUT_CRUFT=yes

A+
Dave