Using cFS: use as-is vs. modify and merge updates?

[shawnadams333-ga]

We've had some discussions recently about whether or not to add a few capabilities to some cFS modules. Updates from Github are easy to apply if we don't modify cFS. But adding a few new capabilities to the cFS source code is an attractive option for our overall use-case.

We're curious about other users' experiences using cFS.

Have you customized cFS for your specific use-case? Or, do you use it as-is?

If you have modified cFS, have you had any complications incorporating updates from Github?

[keegan-moore]

I've seen both. Certain pieces are more prone to modification, like the PSPs (the PSPs are provided out as reference examples, but aren't usually intended for flight without modification).

We're working to develop better ways to use our code without modification (like showing mechanisms to use our CMake systems to override some features while still referencing the rest as unmodified code.

Since this discussion has been open for a while, I'm going to close it out. Feel free to reopen if you want more feedback.

[irowebbn]

In my experience, the upgrade from pre-6.6 versions to newer versions was rough because there was some API breakage that wasn't well-advertised and no obvious prior deprecation notice. We had to do lots of find/replace (ie CFE_SB_SendMsg to CFE_SB_TransmitMsg) across our apps. Since then, the upgrades from Caelum to through each of the Draco release series have been smoother.

I do worry about the "Gov Edition" and Open source version diverging and making changes harder to flow back upstream.