Re: PROPSAL: import Apple's mDNSResponder

[Ty Sarna <ty%sarna.org@localhost>]

On Sep 20, 2009, at 4:08 PM, Bernd Ernesti wrote:

> What does that do and how does that affect the NetBSD base programs?

I will not try to explain mDNS here, better to read up on it separately:

http://www.multicastdns.org/
http://www.dns-sd.org/
http://developer.apple.com/bonjour/

It does not affect base programs unless mdns is enabled as a  
resolution method for hosts in /etc/nsswitch.conf, in which case  
lookups in the .local domain will use mdns.

> Why is it not enough to use it from pkgsrc?

1) You could ask that about many things we ship. At some point, one  
considers things basic functionality that should be included. For me,  
this line has been crossed with mDNS. Especially w/ IPv6, I see it  
being very useful -- very nice to be able to get to machines w/o  
knowing IPs, especially when other services are down/wrong/etc.

2) "positive network externalities" Some things become useful in  
exponential relationship with how widely they're deployed.   Making it  
trivial to deploy helps make it the service more useful.