[tcpdump-workers] Re: Removing untested libpcap support for older platforms

[Denis Ovsienko]

On Thu, 5 Oct 2023 20:27:41 -0700
Guy Harris  wrote:

[...]
> Should we also consider removing support for some older UN*X
> platforms, such as:
> 
>   SunOS prior to SunOS 4 - pcap-nit.c; the last such version,
> SunOS 3.5, was released in January 1988
> 
>   SunOS 4.x - pcap-snit.c; the last such version, SunOS 4.1.5,
> was released in November 1994
> 
>   HP-UX 9 - some code in pcap-dlpi.c;  the last such version,
> 9.10, was released in early-to-mid 1995
> 
>   HP-UX 10 prior to 10.20 - some code in pcap-dlpi.c; - the
> only such version, 10.0, was released in 1995
> 
>   SINIX - some code in pcap-dlpi.c; - the last release, Reliant
> UNIX 5.45, was released some time in the early 2000s (?)
> 
>   IRIX - pcap-snoop.c; - the last update was released some time
> in the mid-to-late 2000s (?)
> 
>   DEC OSF/1^W^WDigital UNIX^WTru64 UNIX - pcap-pf.c; the last
> release, Tru64 UNIX 5.1B-6, was released in October 2010
[...]

For posterity, the master branches no longer support the above OSes
even nominally.  Occasional dead-like code still surfaces, for example,
libpcap still uses a small buffer size on AIX to work around a problem
in AIX 3.5 (not in Wikipedia, supposedly dates to 1993-1994) and uses
conditionals for LynxOS, with which it has had no contact for good 10
years (if anyone knows that's not the case, please provide particulars).
I guess most of such artefacts eventually will be gone too.

In tcpdump README.md now includes a more or less complete list of
retired OSes, please improve what you find in need of improvement.

-- 
Denis Ovsienko
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[tcpdump-workers] Re: Removing untested libpcap support for older platforms

[Michael Richardson]

Guy Harris  wrote:
> Should we also consider removing support for some older UN*X platforms,
> such as:

Yes.

>   SunOS prior to SunOS 4 - pcap-nit.c; the last such version, SunOS
> 3.5, was released in January 1988

>   SunOS 4.x - pcap-snit.c; the last such version, SunOS 4.1.5, was
> released in November 1994

>   HP-UX 9 - some code in pcap-dlpi.c; the last such version, 9.10, was
> released in early-to-mid 1995

>   HP-UX 10 prior to 10.20 - some code in pcap-dlpi.c; - the only such
> version, 10.0, was released in 1995

>   SINIX - some code in pcap-dlpi.c; - the last release, Reliant UNIX
> 5.45, was released some time in the early 2000s (?)

>   IRIX - pcap-snoop.c; - the last update was released some time in the
> mid-to-late 2000s (?)

These are no brainers for me.

>   DEC OSF/1^W^WDigital UNIX^WTru64 UNIX - pcap-pf.c; the last release,
> Tru64 UNIX 5.1B-6, was released in October 2010

I think that there is still some Tru64 out there, so let's remove it, but
note that we are open to putting it back.

> We don't have any buildbots doing tests of those platforms, and I don't
> know when the last test of whether libpcap will compile or work on
> those platforms was done.

> However, there may well be people using them - pull request #1203:

>   https://github.com/the-tcpdump-group/libpcap/pull/1203

> was a change to fix libpcap so that it builds on Mac OS X 10.4, the
> last version of which, 10.5.8, was released on August 13, 2009.

> So the questions are:

>   1) Which of these have a significant user base?

I don't think much outside of museums, and they likely are using the
compilers from that era, which are likely not C99.

>   2) Which of them have a user base willing to provide a buildbot so
> that we check for code rot?

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