Messages in this thread | | | From | (david parsons) | Subject | Re: /proc/sys/net/* proliferation | Date | 13 Sep 1997 00:54:16 -0700 |
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In article <linux.kernel.k2g1rau9fd.fsf@zero.aec.at>, Andi Kleen <ak@muc.de> wrote: >Richard Gooch <rgooch@atnf.CSIRO.AU> writes:
>> Is there a good reason why these options aren't enabled by default? > >I think the idea is that compile time configuration for the network >layer is to be phased out and replaced by sysctls. But it's a very bad >thing to ship a system with ipforward or bootp relay turned on per >default. That's a problem for vendors like Caldera or RedHat who ship >binary kernel images.
Well, when you're building a distribution, it's pretty easy to have the system tune itself to suit when the machine boots up. With tunable security things, a distribution shouldn't ever assume that any kernel will have the defaults set to anything, so why bother to change the defaults when all it will do is annoy the people who don't use those distributions?
I'll certainly cheerfully add support for tunable things into my configuration tools iff 2.2.x doesn't completely break compatability with older kernels. But I'd be somewhat annoyed if bootp stopped working out of the clear blue sky and required some backwards incompatable tweak to enable (since I still run 1.2.13 on occasion when I want to read sgi tapes, I really don't want to have the system freak out while trying to do 2.x.y things when that kernel comes up.)
____ david parsons \bi/ I [heart] backwards compatability and published \/ interfaces.
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