Re: Status of inetutils?
Chad Walstrom <chewie@wookimus.net> writes:
> > the inetutils-package has 4 RC-bugs. As I understood from discussion,
> > inetutils is only useful / required for Hurd. Is this right?
>
> RC bugs aside, isn't inetutils a cleanup/reimplementation of the netkit
> tools? Shouldn't we be fixing it eventually superseeding netkit?
It doesn't correspond specifically to any particular linux package.
inetutils was first created circa 1996 for the hurd, because the various
linux network utility packages were hopelessly (and disgustingly)
crammed full of linux-specific grot, and usually had horrible creaky
build/configuration systems.
Most of the base code for inetutils was taken from BSD 4.4-lite, and
hacked on to be more portable, autoconf-ized &c. The result was
portable enough to run on at least the hurd, linux, sunos, hpux, etc.
I don't know how they compare today, but the last time I looked, the
linux packages were still pretty awful from a portability point of view.
If you want something that runs on a lot of different systems, inetutils
is probably a decent choice, but because it's less used, probably has
some bugs &c., that the other net utility package don't. OTOH, wider
use in debian might be a good way to bring it up to speed...
-Miles
--
We are all lying in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
-Oscar Wilde
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