Re: [gentoo-dev] Keeping net-fs/ncpfs and net-misc/ipx-utils around?

[Andrew Savchenko]

On Mon, 25 Mar 2019 15:19:06 -0400 Joshua Kinard wrote:
> Throwing a question out there on whether to keep both the net-fs/ncpfs and
> net-misc/ipx-utils packages around any longer.  Kernel upstream removed both
> the IPX (Internetwork Packet eXchange) protocol and NCPFS (NetWare Core
> Protocol Filesystem) support back in ~4.18 due to lack of maintenance.  I
> know the code in both generally worked fine back then, as I have a few
> NetWare VMs that I was able to mount filesystems from in Linux, even on my
> MIPS hardware.
>
> However, it is effectively a dead protocol and dead filesystem for a dead
> operating system (NetWare).  I don't see anyone resurrecting IPX/NCPFS and
> updating to get it re-included it in the kernel, either.  I was tempted once
> to try, but I just don't have the time anymore.
>
> I think we're one of the last distros to even keep IPX/NCPFS-related
> packages around long-term.  With no viable upstream for ncpfs anymore, and
> with no kernel support in Linux (or even FreeBSD; they deprecated IPX in
> ~10.0-RELEASE), I think it's time to remove this package and any related
> packages.
>
> One catch is, sys-kernel/gentoo-sources still keeps 4.4, 4.9, and 4.14
> stable kernel series around.  These can still technically use IPX/NCPFS, and
> therefore, there might be users using it.
>
> A quick poll of the portage tree suggests these changes are needed:
>
> Delete USE flag reference:
>     net-analyzer/hydra
>     profiles/use.local.desc (remove hydra's local 'ncp' entry)
>
> Remove ebuilds:
>     net-fs/ncpfs
>     net-misc/ipx-utils
>
> Remove filesystem reference?:
>     sys-apps/mlocate/files/updatedb.conf
>
> Remove reference to 'ipx-utils':
>     profiles/license_groups
>
>
> Thoughts?

Keep them around as long as we have kernel versions supporting
IPX/NCPFS in the tree. When they will pass, perform the cleanup
listed above. 


Best regards,
Andrew Savchenko