Future of LFS

[Bruce Dubbs]

Gerard Beekmans wrote:

> Take a look at http://wiki.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/wiki/LFSFuture

In some cases, the changes proposed only require general agreement of what to do 
and the accomplishment of the task would be relatively easy.  In others, the 
changes would be pervasive throughout the book.

This is my take on the issues:

    1. Educational content

This is still the most important aspect of the book.  Adding more educational 
content is always good.  A couple of things that I would like to see is 
elaboration of the meaning of what the configuration of packages mean with the 
emphasis on udev and the kernel.  A discussion of modules vs compiling in 
drivers would be useful.

I would also like to add the boot scripts to the book as appendices with some 
more comments in the scripts as to what is happening.

I'd also like to expand Chapter 7 to explain the boot process better starting 
with how the kernel finds init and what happens when it is found.  Pointers to 
alternative boot methods and a description of what they do differently from 
System V in the book would not be inappropriate.

    2. Package management and automation

This is one of two difficult areas to address.  How to present PM and how to 
integrate it into the book will take a lot of time to reach consensus on the 
approach to take.  It would basically affect every page in Chapter 6.

    3. Linux Standards Base

This is more of a BLFS issue, but should be addressed in LFS as it sets a 
foundation for the user's "distro."  Things like FHS should also be discussed as 
a part of the intro to LSB.  This is really not a large effort for LFS as it 
would probably be one new page introducing the issue plus some additional text 
in appropriate places like paragraph 6.5.1 (FHS Compliance Note).

    4. 64-bit LFS

This is the other difficult area.  How should the topic be presented and 
integrated into the book will require a fair amount of discussion.  Whether to 
add multilib is also important as a pure 64-bit system has problems with some 
packages.  I would propose a page with an introduction to 64-bit processing to 
provide the user a basis for choosing the desired configuration.  Integrating 
the instructions in a seamless manner will be difficult.

It would be my preference to have all the information on each page, possibly 
with css styles to highlight the common, 32-bit specific, and 64-bit specific 
instructions.

Adding this would affect the build instructions in Chapter 6, the boot scripts, 
and probably several other places.

    5. Licensing and trademark

Changing the license only requires a couple of pages and can be done in a day by 
one editor once consensus is reached.  Registering a trademark is a separate 
issue independent of the book.

    6. Legal (not for profit) organization

Setting up a non-profit is also independent of the book.  One issue we may have 
to address is getting a release from all the editors that have actually 
committed to the book over the last nine years or so we can change the copyright 
owner to the LFS Foundation (or whatever we decide to call it).

I have no preference where the organization is set up.  The candidates are 
Canada and the United States.

   -- Bruce