Request for swapcontext and getcontext to be ported to our libc

Simon 'corecode' Schubert corecode at fs.ei.tum.de
Mon Dec 25 06:07:25 PST 2006


Petr Janda wrote:
Hi,
Could someone please port these from FreeBSD or NetBSD? Without them it 
seem is impossible to install powerdns-recusor.

Can anyone do it in their spare time please?
As I keep saying, open source usually doesn't work this way.  This is 
how I see open source working:

(a) you need something, you do it
(b) you need something, you nag about it
(c) you need something, you offer to pay for it (code bounty), somebody 
takes it and does it for you

so, what we can see, (b) doesn't help if nobody matches (a) nor (c).  of 
course you could have success by doing (b) so long until somebody either 
shows enough mercy and does it or gets interested himself and goes to 
(a).  so if you *really* want something, (a) and (c) are the fastest 
ways.  if your abilities do not match (a), you have to match (c).  it's 
simple as that.  people are volunteering and (as you observed correctly) 
doing stuff in their spare time.  of course this leads to the result 
that people only actually do what they like to do and this does not 
necessarily match what *other* people would like them to do.  offering 
money can overcome this problem.  i think this is a fair model where 
everybody can contribute, either by writing code ((a)) or by supporting 
somebody who writes code ((c)).

cheers
  simon
ps: i think *context does not have to be a kernel function like in 
freebsd, but i'd like to hear more opinions on that





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