xref: /netbsd-src/doc/TODO (revision bdc22b2e01993381dcefeff2bc9b56ca75a4235c)
1#	$NetBSD: TODO,v 1.19 2015/02/19 11:20:43 mrg 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
36User programs:
37    rwall nfs-mountees on shutdown
38
39i386 kernel support:
40    make use of sysenter/sysexit instructions on PIII/4 and Athlon for
41        reducing syscall overhead.
42
43This is a list of suggested smaller projects (in no particular order):
44
45+ speed up sort(1) by using mmap(2) rather than temp files
46+ port valgrind to NetBSD for pkgsrc, then use it to do an audit of
47  any memory leakage
48+ simplify some of the quirks in our build system
49+ investigate zebra or quagga in gnusrc rather than routed
50+ do a type-punned pointer sweep for -fstrict-aliases (and fix the
51  problems, not the symptoms)
52+ write a BSD-licensed web browser
53+ perhaps look at putting wonka into src/ (with uuencoded class lib?)
54+ write an overview document for openssl and certificates
55+ documentation project help
56+ Examine our vnode locking and vfs layer and see what needs to be changed
57  for locking in layered filesystems to really work
58+ Make mountd(8) update the in-kernel exports list for each file system
59  atomically.  Many parts of the utility will need a rewrite, but the kernel
60  functionality is already there (just enable the "notyet" blocks of code in
61  sys/nfs/nfs_export.c).
62