bsd-user: Dropping the NetBSD and OpenBSD code

bsd-user: Dropping the NetBSD and OpenBSD code

[Warner Losh]

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So, it's been years since this code compiled by default, and even more
years since they compiled at all.

Maybe 5 years ago, I contacted the OpenBSD folks, who said it had decayed
beyond uselessness. So I plan on just removing the bsd-user/openbsd code
shortly.

Maybe 4 years ago, someone from NetBSD popped up and said they had a fork
and they'd share it with me, but they never did, and we never reconnected
despite some email attempts since then. So, I'd like to remove the netbsd
directory as well.

Both of these are finally getting enough in the way that they are causing
me problems with upstreaming the bsd-user stuff. Now that I have a good
head of steam on doing that, I'd like to finish that process. Expect me to
flood your email in the coming months with way too many patches now that
I've found a way to streamline the process enough for me to sneak it into
what would otherwise be lost Friday afternoons...

Before I send the patch series to do this, I'd like to do a last and final
call for collaboration. I kept it around for this long in the hopes someone
would show up, but nobody ever did.

Warner

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Re: bsd-user: Dropping the NetBSD and OpenBSD code

[Thomas Huth]

On 06/02/2026 02.03, Warner Losh wrote:
> So, it's been years since this code compiled by default, and even more years 
> since they compiled at all.
> 
> Maybe 5 years ago, I contacted the OpenBSD folks, who said it had decayed 
> beyond uselessness. So I plan on just removing the bsd-user/openbsd code 
> shortly.
> 
> Maybe 4 years ago, someone from NetBSD popped up and said they had a fork 
> and they'd share it with me, but they never did, and we never reconnected 
> despite some email attempts since then. So, I'd like to remove the netbsd 
> directory as well.
> 
> Both of these are finally getting enough in the way that they are causing me 
> problems with upstreaming the bsd-user stuff. Now that I have a good head of 
> steam on doing that, I'd like to finish that process. Expect me to flood 
> your email in the coming months with way too many patches now that I've 
> found a way to streamline the process enough for me to sneak it into what 
> would otherwise be lost Friday afternoons...
> 
> Before I send the patch series to do this, I'd like to do a last and final 
> call for collaboration. I kept it around for this long in the hopes someone 
> would show up, but nobody ever did.

Please make sure to CC: at least the related people who are listed in the 
MAINTAINERS file (done now). But if nobody speaks up, yes, I'd say go ahead 
and remove the bitrotten code.

  Thomas

Re: bsd-user: Dropping the NetBSD and OpenBSD code

[Daniel P. Berrangé]

On Thu, Feb 05, 2026 at 06:03:56PM -0700, Warner Losh wrote:
> So, it's been years since this code compiled by default, and even more
> years since they compiled at all.
> 
> Maybe 5 years ago, I contacted the OpenBSD folks, who said it had decayed
> beyond uselessness. So I plan on just removing the bsd-user/openbsd code
> shortly.
> 
> Maybe 4 years ago, someone from NetBSD popped up and said they had a fork
> and they'd share it with me, but they never did, and we never reconnected
> despite some email attempts since then. So, I'd like to remove the netbsd
> directory as well.
> 
> Both of these are finally getting enough in the way that they are causing
> me problems with upstreaming the bsd-user stuff. Now that I have a good
> head of steam on doing that, I'd like to finish that process. Expect me to
> flood your email in the coming months with way too many patches now that
> I've found a way to streamline the process enough for me to sneak it into
> what would otherwise be lost Friday afternoons...
> 
> Before I send the patch series to do this, I'd like to do a last and final
> call for collaboration. I kept it around for this long in the hopes someone
> would show up, but nobody ever did.

We probably should have marked the feature deprecated a while ago, but since
you indicate it can't even compile, I think that's sufficient justification
to simply delete it. The period of time when it failed to compile can be
considered to count as the deprecation count down

Personally I'd suggest just sending the patches to do the deletion, and
CC'ing the relevant people on those.  An actual deletion proposal is more
likely to wake any interested person from their slumber. If someone does
show up we can debate whether to none the less go ahead with deletion,
and let someone pull it back out of git history later if they want to
work on making it build again.


With regards,
Daniel
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