Moving dnssd to kdelibs

Jakub Stachowski stachowski at hypair.net
Wed Dec 1 15:53:41 GMT 2004


Hello,

I would like to propose moving kdenonbeta/kdnssd/dnssd (simple library build 
on Apple's mDNSResponder for discovering and publishing services using DNS-SD 
aka ZeroConf aka Rendezvous protocol) into kdelibs. Reason: after several 
months of development I think it is quite good shape and I have several 
use-cases for that:
 - patch for krdc to search for remote desktop. It was approved by maintainer 
(Tim Jansen) but can't go in without dnssd lib
- patch for kpf to publish information about shared dirs, so you can find it 
using dnssd:// ioslave on kde, nautilus on gnome or safari on mac
- patch for kaddprintwizard (in progress)  - this is main reason why lib needs 
to be in kdelibs and not kdenetwork. 

- random idea I just got (not even started yet) for easy launching remote apps 
(not whole session): add new submenu to standard k-menu: 'K -> Remote 
application -> (list of hosts) -> (normal k-menu for every host) '. List of 
hosts could be populated by searching for _remoteapps._tcp (advertising 
location of /usr/share/applications and ssh port) or something similar. List 
of applications could be populated by reading 
fish://user@host/usr/share/applications and parsing just like local menu, but 
any 'exec=app' would be changed into 'exec=kdessh -X user at host app' (kdessh 
would have to be able to enable X11 forwarding)

DNS-SD lib is based on Apple's mDNSResponder, (all functions will return 
immediate failure when compiled without it) so it would be new optional 
dependency. If you are concerned about legal issues, then I can say there is 
nothing to worry about: client library has been relicensed to BSD about 2 
months ago. I have provided some patches for Posix version of mDNSResponder 
to implement missing features (see 
http://lists.apple.com/archives/rendezvous-dev/2004/Nov/msg00055.html and 
followups) and according to Marc Krochmal from Apple they are going into CVS 
today, and after my confirmation that everything is working as expected new 
release will be made.





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