[RFC] remove GNU rcs from FreeBSD 12

[Alfred Perlstein]

On 9/11/16 6:38 AM, Baptiste Daroussin wrote:
> hi,
>
> For long we are planning to remove GNU rcs from base, after a failed attempt
> before FreeBSD 10.0. Let see where we are to be able to remove it from FreeBSD
> 12.
>
> GNU rcs is a GPLv2 software with newer version being GPLv3 preventing any
> updates/fixes.
>
>  From previous discussions there were issues that has been raised in previous
> attempts:
> - ident(1) is still useful given we still have Keywords in our sources. It has
>    been replaced by a BSD Licensed version (enhanced to improve compatibility
>    with Subversion Keyword) for FreeBSD 11. So that tool will remain in base
>    after removal of GNU rcs.
> - etc-update uses merge(1) from GNU rcs, this has been changed in head to use
>    diff3 instead.
> - rc.subr allows to use rcs for the backup file functionality. This
>    functionality is off by default as such I plan to make a warning if rcs is not
>    installed and recommand to install rcs from base (or if noone claim using the
>    feature I will just remove the functionality and only keep the default
>    behaviour aka keep one backup copy).
> - people uses rcs to handle configuration files in /etc for example. for those
>    multiple compatible alternatives are available in ports:
>    * rcs57: a copy of the latest version of GNU rcs in base before removal
>      (GPLv2)
>    * rcs: latest GNU rcs version (GPLv3)
>
> I haven't gone the direction of importing OpenRCS (BSD licensed version from
> OpenBSD) as it needs way more work to be 100% compatible with latest version of
> GNU rcs.
>
> How to proceed:
> - First turn off GNU rcs by default for a couple of month.
> - Totally remove GNU rcs if no blockers has been raised.
>
> Best regards,
> Bapt
\o/

-Alfred