Discussion: Moving WPA_SUPPLICANT out of base and into dports

[John Marino]

The HOSTAPD and WPA_SUPPLICANT vendor branches weren't updated for over
4 years until Alex Perrin helped us bump to version 2.1.  Since then
versions 2.2 and 2.3 have been released.

I've spent a few hours already trying to update it again, but it's quite
complex.  The code changes rapidly and the DragonFly makefiles,
inherited from FreeBSD, support a bunch of custom build options with
variables set in the Make.conf file.

I suspect nobody knew about these variables and thus don't use them, so
removing support for them would definitely make future maintenance
either.  So it would be interesting to hear if anyone customizes
WPA_SUPPLICANT through make.conf.

While pondering this, I began asking myself why WPA_SUPPLICANT and
HOSTAPD were in base at all.  We could easily move this to dports and
add the packages as mandatory for nrelease.  That would have the
following benefits:
  * Easier to maintain
  * More likely to have current version available
  * Custom options would be available via normal ports dialog
  * Base would contract

We could probably ease WPA_SUPPLICANT and HOSTAPD out gently.  For
example, version 2.1 wouldn't build by default but it would still be in
base so Make.conf switch could activate it.  After a release or two when
it's clear having in dports works well, we can remove it from base
completely.

What do people think?  Is there some crucial reason why WPA_SUPPLICANT
and HOSTAPD have to remain in base?  Feedback on this topic would be great!

Thanks,
John