porting linux

[Giovanni Montano]

Is safe making porting of linux programs without risking any vulnerability?

[Tim Moores]

Porting from where to where? It just means making a program run on a different platform. That wouldn't normally alter characteristics like security.

[Tim Holloway]

Tim Moores wrote:Porting from where to where? It just means making a program run on a different platform. That wouldn't normally alter characteristics like security.

I believe he means porting from Linux to BSD.

Actually, a lot of popular Linux programs started out under BSD, including the PostgreSQL database and many are multi-targeted.

While BSD is a bit different than Linux in some respects, it's not so different that major rewrites are usually required. Instead there's a master source code tree and commonly the package builders such as rpmbuild will first pull down the pure source, then apply distro-specific patches before doing the actual build. So the main issue in porting from Linux to BSD would involve determining what patches needed to be created and applied.

[Giovanni Montano]

I see but since 6.0 lost compatibility https://www.infoworld.com/article/3099038/openbsd-60-tightens-security-by-losing-linux-compatibility.html

In any case if I run software exposed to internet is possible to exploit zero days, I guess although the nice encrypted system of this fabolous underrated system, both the system than the founder, although i bet the system is not so sure as one could think

[Tim Holloway]

I'd never heard of a Linux compatibility layer in BSD, but apparently what is mostly was was a set of functions that allowed you to talk to BSD using Linux commands and service names (within limits).

You wouldn't/should be using Linux compatibility to port an app to BSD. You should be building native BSD under the "unix is Unix" principle that the bulk of all Unix-like OS's is similar. In cases where you have to speak with specific details, such as the Linux D-Bus, you'd put in a patch to talk to the BSD equivalent of D-Bus (assuming there is one). Or simply null it out (since D-Bus isn't a critical part of most Linux apps, anyway, much less non-Linux apps).