As you might know, Netcat implementation is going to be part of OpenSolaris. The initial Netcat integration is based on a reimplementation from OpenBSD (here's why).

As Jeff Bonwick said, open sourced code is nothing compared to the fact that all design discussions and decisions suddenly happen in the public (loosely paraphrased). This is a great wave to ride and I have jumped on it when it was not really small so I have at least posted the webrev pointer for initial Netcat integration (CR 4664622) to the opensolaris-code mailing list (which is roughly the equivalent of freebsd-hackers, openbsd-tech or similar mailing lists) to get some code review comments.

Since then couple of things changed. Thanks to Dan Price and others it's now possible to upload webrevs to cr.opensolaris.org. I have started using the service so the new and official place for the Netcat webrev is

cr.opensolaris.org/~vkotal/netcat-webrev/

The webrev has moved location but what I said in the opensolaris-code post still holds true:

Any constructive notes regarding the code are welcome. (I am mainly looking for functional/logic errors, packaging flaws or parts of code which could mismatch the PSARC case)

The following things could help any potential code reviewer:

• Summary of the changes done to the original implementation in order to adapt it to Solaris environment..
• PSARC 2007/389 case covering interfaces delivered by this project. For more information about ARCs see Architecture Process and Tools community pages.
• SUNWnetcat package (x86) which contains /usr/bin/nc binary
• webrev of the differences between my version of Netcat and the one which is currently in OpenBSD.
  Only the *.[ch] files matter, of course. (This is very easy thing to do with distributed SCM since it only requires one to reparent and regenerate webrev against new parent workspace)
• Updated manual page
  This is slightly different from the man page in the PSARC materials because it contains new section about using nc with privileges and associated set of examples in the EXAMPLES section. The man page in the PSARC materials will not be updated because after a case is approved, the man page is updated only in case some architectural changes were needed. In the case of privileges, it is only addition describing specific usage, no architectural changes.

The conclusion for non code reviewers ? I hope it is clear the in (Open)Solaris land we value quality and transparency. Peer reviews and architectural reviews are just (albeit crucial) pieces which help to achieve that goal.