Creating /etc/os-release

[MJ]

On 8/11/2019 4:14 pm, Warner Losh wrote:
>
>
> On Thu, Nov 7, 2019, 3:39 PM MJ <mafsys1234 at gmail.com <mailto:mafsys1234 at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>
>     On 8/11/2019 5:10 am, Warner Losh wrote:
>     > Greetings,
>     >
>     > A standard has evolved in other communities to communicate certain key
>     > aspects of the system to interested parties.  The /etc/os-release file. The
>     > standard is defined here http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/os-release and
>     > here https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/os-release.html . It
>     > has become a de-facto standard for the graphical systems.
>
>     First off, I'm not attempting to be antagonistic about this, I have no horse in this race. However, I am genuinely curious about why this is needed and to that end why it adds more clutter to the system.
>
>     So, forgive me, but why is this needed? Ok, it's a "standard" but for what reason is there to add it specifically to FreeBSD?
>
>
> FreeBSD implements industry standards. This is a new standard that creates friction for our users because they have to do extra things that users of other systems get without doing anything.
>
That seems a rather vague substantiation. Anyway, it seems this is such an issue that FreeBSD will imminently fail without it.


>
>
>     > FreeBSD currently tries to address this with a port
>     > sysutils/etc_os-release, but there's a number of issues with it, see for
>     > example https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=238953. The
>     > biggest issue being that we can't install a static file: it has to change
>     > as the system is updated.
>
>     I see one issue. The issue is with the port itself, not FreeBSD. Does FreeBSD fail to operate with this file missing? What ports are failing with this missing?
>
>
> Lots of desktop programs have issues.
>
As in?


>     In my own use cases, our servers run fine without it. My desktop runs fine without it. I'm not seeing the compelling reason. Sorry.
>
>
> You can ignore it. I'm sure there are at least 2 extra firewalls you are ignoring or doing something to disable...


I am only asking a question or two. I fail to see the need to be so hostile about simple questions. If this is indeed a good idea, I would expect some substantive, imperial proof of its need.

Just asking.

But, then again, don't bother, you've set the tone of this "discussion".


Regards,

Mark