infix/doc/goals.md

Infix Goals

The founding ideas that drive Infix are:

• Use Buildroot, it is:
  • High quality, track their LTS releases whenever possible
  • Well maintained and responsive community
  • Easy to use (c.f. Yocto or roll-your-own)
  • Well curated Open Source components
  • Take active part in Buildroot to secure investment in key components
• Extend with other Open Source components for system monitoring, networking, etc. With the intent of upstreaming them to become parts of Buildroot proper
• Rely on standards, i.e., use NETCONF and YANG
• When standards are not enough create models that fit well with Linux and chosen Open Source components
• Keep as much as possible Open Source, no need to maintain stuff that is not core business
• Secure boot by default
• Use RAUC for upgrades, it works
• Serve as a stand-alone(!) base for other projects that use Infix as their Buildroot external -- this makes Infix a great layer for where to publish used Open Source components and patches used in customer projects

Note: projects derived from Infix (as a Buildroot external) will be able to seamlessly extend the CLI with other models.

Short Term

• Integrate Clixon and some well-chosen IETF/IEEE YANG models (ietf-system, ietf-interfaces/ip)
• Get the (from YANG) automatically generated CLI working similar to Cisco, HP ProCurve, and other well-known command line interfaces, with a focus on usability
• First baseline release, from Buildroot 2023.02 (LTS) -> v23.6.0

Medium Term

• First Web interface built on top of RESTCONF API
• Static routing, firewalling, and other advanced YANG models
• OSPF YANG model integrated with Frr as backend
• Second release -> v23.10.0

Long Term

• Not determined.
• Third release -> v24.6.0