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Orthogonal to bloat, libstdc++ is a large, ugly, and hard-to-audit attack surface that I'm sure OpenBSD is glad to push out of core.
by jckarter 16y ago
Orthogonal to bloat, libstdc++ is a large, ugly, and hard-to-audit attack surface that I'm sure OpenBSD is glad to push out of core.
- tedunangst 16y agolibstdc++ remains as much a part of core as it ever was.
- wnoise 16y agoBut if nothing links with it, so there are no executables using it, that would seem to reduce the attack surface.
- tedunangst 16y agoThe attack surface of "there is groff in /usr/bin" was never very substantial.
- wnoise 16y agoGet root to run "man foo" with the right manpath...
- jckarter 16y agoI see. So does this purge only consist of compiled executables then, with the standard C++ headers and libstdc++ still getting a pass?
- JoachimSchipper 16y agoYes. And it's not so much a C++ purge as it is a "unmaintainable GPL-licensed slow software" purge, as far as I understand. C++ does hurt comprehension, but it's not the main complaint.
- tedunangst 16y agoI think it's rather sad that HN has mostly ignored the meat of this story, and is instead focusing on a not entirely true one line throwaway.
- jckarter 16y agoSad, but understandable. "OpenBSD writes their own ROFF interpreter" isn't very interesting, but "OpenBSD purges C++ from core" appeals to developers' strong emotional responses toward C++.
- j_baker 16y agoWait... so then libstdc++ isn't written in C++? Or is "core" different from "base"?
- tedunangst 16y agoOption 3: core/base is not actually free of C++.