IPFW or pf?

[Lowell Gilbert]

Andreas Davour <ante at Update.UU.SE> writes:

> I have read the handbook about firewalls, and compiled my kernel
> without switching on any explicit support for pf.
> 
> Now, when I ran the mergemaster it suddenly found a lot of references
> to pf in my startup scripts.

The startup scripts support pf, but do not require it.

> Is pf some kind of mandatory part of the base system these days? I
> thought it was some kind of alternative to IPFW, but now I'm no longer
> so sure.

It is a part of the base system.  It is always present just like ipfw,
but its use is not required.

> Can someone tell me if it's ok to just use IPFW on my STABLE system,
> or is there some other knobs in the kernelconfig I should toggle to
> turn off pf support?

You are fine the way you are.  I recommend letting mergemaster update
the default pf startup files, so that it won't ask about them next
time, but it doesn't really matter if you're not using pf.