Re: FreeBSD/NetBSD makefs sync

[christos%astron.com@localhost (Christos Zoulas)]

In article <CAPyFy2DFBpJk_wj4ohvF2at8d0zadmn+spWMM8GVsFCn8_4yvw%mail.gmail.com@localhost>,
Ed Maste  <emaste%freebsd.org@localhost> wrote:
>I and some other FreeBSD developers are interested in syncing our copy
>of makefs with changes that have happened in NetBSD, to pick up msdos
>support and other changes. I started a thread on the FreeBSD-arch list
>[1] to discuss different approaches of updating our makefs, and
>passing on to NetBSD changes that are only in our tree.
>
>I've discovered a few differences with options, and would like to
>mention them here in the hope that we can avoid introducing new
>incompatible use of option letters.
>
>FreeBSD's has an option that is currently not taken in NetBSD's makefs:
>-D    Treat duplicate paths in an mtree manifest as warnings not error.

This functionality is give with the -r flag (r for replace). NetBSD's
makefs by default will accept duplicate directory definitions and
output the union of the files found in all the common directory
definitions. If there are conflicts (same filenames in a directory)
and -r is not specified, we get an error; if -r is specified the
node is replaced silently with the last one found. This is useful
to override passwd and group files for example with ones provided
for the custom image.

>We originally used -p as the sparse option but have now deprecated it
>in favour of -Z.

Ok...

>We recently introduced an incompatible -r option (to round up the
>image size). I've noted that in FreeBSD PR 203707 [2] which provided
>the patch, and it's been updated to use -R instead.
>
>We don't yet have -O (offset) in FreeBSD.
>
>[1] https://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-arch/2015-October/017376.html
>[2] https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=203707

These are difficult questions. I think that the best way is for
you to send us your fixes so we can create version that has all
the fixes and features.  I will apply them and then you can decide
how to import/ apply the changes on your side. We can also try in
the process make the makefs program more header neutral, but we'll
both need to make filesystem header changes for that to work I
guess.

Best,

christos