*BSD News Article 56526


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From: thorpej@lestat.nas.nasa.gov (Jason R. Thorpe)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: NetBSD camp reaction to OpenBSD?
Date: 4 Dec 1995 02:23:35 GMT
Organization: Numerical Aerodynamic Simulation Project - NASA Ames
Lines: 31
Message-ID: <49tm37$2hs@cnn.nas.nasa.gov>
References: <30B6A790.41C67EA6@FreeBSD.org> <1995Nov29.102918.7769@wavehh.hanse.de>
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In article <1995Nov29.102918.7769@wavehh.hanse.de>,
Martin Cracauer <cracauer@wavehh.hanse.de> wrote:

>Well, one thing that seems really more "open" in OpenBSD is public
>readonly CVS access (as advertised, don't know if this is up for
>now). 
>
>I'd really like to see this for NetBSD/FreeBSD, too. As an example, it
>would make it much easier to look at John Dyson's work on the VM
>system without having to ask someone to check out all these changes.

OpenBSD is in an interesting position re. read-only CVS access that the
other (FreeBSD and NetBSD) camps don't enjoy: the code base is
unencumbered.  FreeBSD and NetBSD both have RCS files with Net/2 origins.
Some of these files were later found to be (pr possibly be) tainted
with AT&T or otherwise encumbered code.  If either project were to allow
the general public to have access to the first revisions of these files,
it could mean legal trouble.

There's another interesting issue regarding the legal (copyright, license)
status of diffs between revisions, which often do not contain a complete
copyright notice.

In all, while anon cvs is nifty, I think it could become a bigger ball
of hair than people expect.  I personally wouldn't want its thorn in my side.

-- 
Jason R. Thorpe                                       thorpej@nas.nasa.gov
NASA Ames Research Center                               Home: 408.866.1912
NAS: M/S 258-6                                          Work: 415.604.0935
Moffett Field, CA 94035                                Pager: 415.428.6939