Hi everyone,
for a very long time we have the "netcat-openbsd" package. In the
past, src:netcat provided a "netcat" binary package, but it was
renamed (with a long-standing, now removed, transitional package) to
"netcat-traditional".
For your reference, the package descriptions are:
Package: netcat-traditional
Description-en: TCP/IP swiss army knife
A simple Unix utility which reads and writes data across network
connections using TCP or UDP protocol. It is designed to be a reliable
"back-end" tool that can be used directly or easily driven by other
programs and scripts. At the same time it is a feature-rich network
debugging and exploration tool, since it can create almost any kind
of connection you would need and has several interesting built-in
capabilities.
.
This is the "classic" netcat, written by *Hobbit*. It lacks many
features found in netcat-openbsd.
Package: netcat-openbsd
Description-en: TCP/IP swiss army knife
A simple Unix utility which reads and writes data across network connections
using TCP or UDP protocol. It is designed to be a reliable "back-end" tool
that can be used directly or easily driven by other programs and scripts. At
the same time it is a feature-rich network debugging and exploration tool,
since it can create almost any kind of connection you would need and has
several interesting built-in capabilities.
.
This package contains the OpenBSD rewrite of netcat, including support for
IPv6, proxies, and Unix sockets.
Yet netcat-traditional is still Priority: standard, and thus the
one included in normal installs.
I would like to see the Priority fields to be switched, so:
netcat-openbsd becomes Priority: standard
netcat-traditional becomes Priority: optional
What does everyone think?
Chris
NB: netcat-traditional currently FTBFS.