xref: /netbsd-src/doc/TODO (revision 6cf6fe02a981b55727c49c3d37b0d8191a98c0ee)
1#	$NetBSD: TODO,v 1.18 2014/06/10 20:23:21 joerg Exp $
2
3THINGS TO BE DONE:
4
5[ Note that this list does not include change requests filed via 'gnats'.
6  For information about them, mail query-pr@NetBSD.org. ]
7
8This is a list of things that need to be done for NetBSD.  Some of
9these projects are small, others are large.  Some are extremely
10important, others are enhancements to make the system more flexible
11for the wide variety of NetBSD users and their applications.
12
13In general there are some guidelines for work to be included in
14NetBSD.  Chief among these are:
15
16	   (1) Keep GPLed stuff out of the kernel.
17	   (2) Introduce little to no more GPLed stuff as non-optional
18	       components of the user environment.
19	   (3) Only clean code, that lends itself to further enhancement
20	   (4) Keep architecture dependent code out of architecture independent
21	       directories
22
23Associated with some entries are login names which indicate persons or
24groups who may already be working on that problem.  This isn't to say
25that others shouldn't also look at it, but consultation with other
26parties may result in less duplicated work.  A directory of these
27persons can be found after the todo list itself.
28
29Please don't hesitate to suggest more projects for this list.
30Suggestions, comments, etc to projects@NetBSD.org.
31
32High Kernel:
33    swap fixes:
34	swap to file of dynamic size; see apollo
35    nfs:
36	kernel support for lockd(8), lockf(3)
37
38User programs:
39    rwall nfs-mountees on shutdown
40    add detachment to window(1)
41    clean up gas config files, set up common defines
42
43Documentation:
44    modify sys docs to reflect NetBSD/arch-specific stuff
45    clean up src/share/man/{man0,tools} so that we can generate a printable
46        version from the manpages again.
47
48i386 kernel support:
49    better ways of accessing BIOS, i/o space.  some exportable to
50	user space.  See mach3,linux dos emulator
51    i686 optimized versions of copyin/copyout/memcpy/memset/etc. lazy
52        floating-point context switching should be implemented as well.
53    make use of sysenter/sysexit instructions on PIII/4 and Athlon for
54        reducing syscall overhead.
55
56This is a list of suggested smaller projects (in no particular order):
57
58+ speed up sort(1) by using mmap(2) rather than temp files
59+ autoconf version of nawk, for use in non-NetBSD pkgsrc
60+ port valgrind to NetBSD for pkgsrc, then use it to do an audit of
61  any memory leakage
62+ help in implementing various things in pkgsrc
63+ simplify some of the quirks in our build system
64+ help out with scripts for tgm/autobuild
65+ some PR fixing/re-categorising/investigating/closing
66+ investigate zebra or quagga in gnusrc rather than routed
67+ do a type-punned pointer sweep for gcc3 (and fix the problems, not
68  the symptoms)
69+ kernel fine-grained locking
70+ write a BSD-licensed web browser
71+ perhaps look at putting wonka into src/ (with uuencoded class lib?)
72+ document autoconf framework
73+ write an overview document for openssl and certificates
74+ documentation project help
75+ investigate which userland utilities and daemons would benefit from
76  kqueue, and rewrite them
77+ add a native scheme interpreter
78+ add platform support for TenDRA compiler suite
79+ merge moused(8) with wsmoused(8) as a new work mode (i.e. serial)
80+ re-design our mbuf/network buffer memory handling so that it is simpler
81  and can handle zero copy tcp
82+ re-design our signal handling path. It is far too complicated and will not
83  be easy to accommodate MP code
84+ Examine our vnode locking and vfs layer and see what needs to be changed
85  for locking in layered filesystems to really work
86+ Make mountd(8) update the in-kernel exports list for each file system
87  atomically.  Many parts of the utility will need a rewrite, but the kernel
88  functionality is already there (just enable the "notyet" blocks of code in
89  sys/nfs/nfs_export.c).
90+ Kerberize more services like ftp, ftpd, rsh, rshd, rlogind, ...
91  (see PR bin/31378)
92