Re: Time to retire some ancient network pseudo-interfaces?

[Jason Thorpe <thorpej%me.com@localhost>]

> On Jul 12, 2018, at 11:20 AM, Andy Ball <ball%grex.org@localhost> wrote:
> 
> 
> Hello Jason,
> 
>  JT> I think it's time to retire some of the ancient network pseudo-
>> interfaces that still linger in our tree.  Specifically, strip
>> and sl.
> 
>    SLIP is still handy (if slow) for talking to equipment that lacks
> a working Ethernet port.  It might be handy for some of the embedded
> applications that NetBSD is well suited to.  I don't imagine it's very
> large.  Is it broken or otherwise a burden?

It's a burden in the sense that it's another item of extremely limited utility that has to be modified in the continuing quest to modernize the NetBSD networking stack.

As for use with embedded systems, I can't imagine that it's really all that useful in that scenario; many of the UARTs on such devices lack flow control signals, so the reliability of the interface would be of concern.  There are typically (and, these days, universally) better ways to connect to embedded systems.  Honestly, the first thing that leapt to mind for a contemporary use of SLIP was "some poor soul might have a VAX 11/7x0 that without an Ethernet interface".

-- thorpej