Re: OpenSSH HPN

On 11/10/15 1:42 AM, Dag-Erling Smørgrav wrote:
> Some of you may have noticed that OpenSSH in base is lagging far behind
> the upstream code.
>
> The main reason for this is the burden of maintaining the HPN patches.
> They are extensive, very intrusive, and touch parts of the OpenSSH code
> that change significantly in every release.  Since they are not
> regularly updated, I have to choose between trying to resolve the
> conflicts myself (hoping I don't break anything) or waiting for them to
> catch up and then figuring out how to apply the new version.
>
> Therefore, I would like to remove the HPN patches from base and refer
> anyone who really needs them to the openssh-portable port, which has
> them as a default option.  I would also like to remove the NONE cipher
> patch, which is also available in the port (off by default, just like in
> base).

My current employer is a big proponent of HPN (see 
http://fasterdata.es.net/data-transfer-tools/scp-and-sftp/).  However, I 
agree that the difficulty of patching to the changing upstream is 
significant.  Frankly, I am quite impressed that you have been able to 
keep up with it for this long.

I would be more than happy if the HPN patches continued to be in the 
port version and base were able to keep up with the upstream by removing 
the HPN dependency.  There will be some places where we will notice the 
difference in performance; in those cases we will install the 
HPN-patched port.

michael