xref: /src/doc/TODO

#	$NetBSD: TODO,v 1.13 2005/09/23 12:10:32 jmmv Exp $

THINGS TO BE DONE:

[ Note that this list does not include change requests filed via 'gnats'.
  For information about them, mail query-pr@NetBSD.org. ]

This is a list of things that need to be done for NetBSD.  Some of
these projects are small, others are large.  Some are extremely
important, others are enhancements to make the system more flexible
for the wide variety of NetBSD users and their applications.

In general there are some guidelines for work to be included in
NetBSD.  Chief among these are:

	   (1) Keep GPLed stuff out of the kernel.
	   (2) Introduce little to no more GPLed stuff as non-optional
	       components of the user environment.
	   (3) Only clean code, that lends itself to further enhancement
	   (4) Keep architecture dependent code out of architecture independent
	       directories

Associated with some entries are login names which indicate persons or
groups who may already be working on that problem.  This isn't to say
that others shouldn't also look at it, but consultation with other
parties may result in less duplicated work.  A directory of these
persons can be found after the todo list itself.

Please don't hesitate to suggest more projects for this list.
Suggestions, comments, etc to projects@NetBSD.org.

High Kernel:
    swap fixes:
	swap to file of dynamic size; see apollo
    nfs:
	kernel support for lockd(8), lockf(3)
    clean up support for LKM and protections checking (cgd)

User programs:
    rwall nfs-mountees on shutdown
    add detachment to window
    clean up gas config files, set up common defines

Pie-in-the-Sky:
    someone should actually test all the netiso stuff.
    SMB filesystem

Documentation:
    modify sys docs to reflect NetBSD/arch-specific stuff
    clean up src/share/man/{man0,tools} so that we can generate a printable
        version from the manpages again.

i386 kernel support:
    better ways of accessing BIOS, i/o space.  some exportable to
	user space.  See mach3,linux dos emulator
    i686 optimized versions of copyin/copyout/memcpy/memset/etc. lazy
        floating-point context switching should be implemented as well.
    make use of sysenter/sysexit instructions on PIII/4 and Athlon for
        reducing syscall overhead.

This is a list of suggested smaller projects (in no particular order):

+ speed up sort(1) by using mmap(2) rather than temp files
+ autoconf version of nawk, for use in non-NetBSD pkgsrc
+ port valgrind to NetBSD for pkgsrc, then use it to do an audit of
  any memory leakage
+ implement POSIX async IO
+ help in implementing various things in pkgsrc
+ simplify some of the quirks in our build system
+ help out with scripts for tgm/autobuild
+ some PR fixing/re-categorising/investigating/closing
+ investigate zebra or quagga in gnusrc rather than routed
+ do a type-punned pointer sweep for gcc3 (and fix the problems, not
  the symptoms)
+ kernel fine-grained locking
+ write a BSD-licensed web browser
+ write a BSD-licensed privacy guard like gnupg or pgp
+ perhaps look at putting wonka into src/ (with uuencoded class lib?)
+ investigate ProPolice
+ document autoconf framework
+ write an overview document for openssl and certificates
+ documentation project help
+ investigate which userland utilities and daemons would benefit from
  kqueue, and rewrite them
+ better testing in general; in particular, more regression tests
+ better LKM version checking
+ add a native scheme interpreter
+ add platform support for TenDRA compiler suite
+ merge moused(8) with wsmoused(8) as a new work mode (i.e. serial)
+ re-design our mbuf/network buffer memory handling so that it is simpler
  and can handle zero copy tcp
+ re-design our signal handling path. It is far too complicated and will not
  be easy to accommodate MP code
+ Examine our vnode locking and vfs layer and see what needs to be changed
  for locking in layered filesystems to really work
+ Make mountd(8) update the in-kernel exports list for each file system
  atomically.  Many parts of the utility will need a rewrite, but the kernel
  functionality is already there (just enable the "notyet" blocks of code in
  sys/nfs/nfs_export.c).