Re: r239356: does it mean, that synchronous dhcp and dhcplcinet with disabled devd gone?

On Aug 21, 2012, at 11:36 AM, Ian Lepore wrote:

> On Tue, 2012-08-21 at 21:01 +0400, Lev Serebryakov wrote:
>> IL> The important point is that if you unplug the cable then plug it into a
>> IL> different network, now the right thing will happen -- you will acquire
>> IL> an address on the new network.  That's the reason that this change is an
>> IL> important bugfix for a long standing (many many years) bug in freebsd's
>> IL> dhclient.
>>  No, I'll be without dhclient at all, if I don't use devd :(. And
>> absence of devd is completely legal, and should be supported. It is
>> perfectly valid and sensible setup for small devices (think:
>> MIPS-based routers, which are started to be supported now), where devd
>> could be very costly in both terms of flash size (it is C++
>> application and need C++ runtime!) and memory (only devd event on
>> such devices are this cable plugging/unplugging -- so using devd
>> doesn't add any value for such setups).
>> 
> 
> I think it's funny how people have this knee-jerk reaction against C++
> apps.  The devd executable is not exactly an example of bloatware: 374k
> statically linked (so it already includes this "C++ runtime" that you
> think is large).    We routinely deploy embedded systems that use apps
> written exclusively in C++, on systems that only have 32 or 64mb of ram.
> We've been doing so since the days when the biggest compact flash card
> you could buy was 64mb.

C++ isn't the problem.  Devd's size wouldn't be any smaller if I'd written it in pure C.  People have sent me patches that move it to pure C over time.  Yet, when written in C, the binaries are the same size (well, within 10k), and the run-time speed and memory consumption are comparable.  Devd was written with the small, embedded system in mind, and was always considered to be on the path to being mandatory (you are free to write your own devd-like program, if you like btw).

Haven't looked at the dhclient issues surrounding this tread, but C++ size and bloat of devd is an argument not supported by the objective facts.

Warner