[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread] 

List:       busybox
Subject:    Re: non-busybox dhcp clients (was: PATCH: ifupdown.c, udhcpc,
From:       "Gabriel L. Somlo" <somlo () cmu ! edu>
Date:       2006-09-29 19:24:43
Message-ID: 20060929192443.GA26015 () hedwig ! net ! cmu ! edu
[Download RAW message or body]

Paul Fox <pgf@brightstareng.com> wrote:
> i must be missing something.  couldn't which client to use simply
> be made configurable?  either at busybox build time, or at runtime?
> i understand why on a "real" system, to make it overly
> user-friendly that ifup might try multiple clients until one
> succeeds.  but surely in busybox the ifup command could honor another
> config file keyword, or a commandline argument, or an environment
> variable, or whatever, to specify the command.  and, of course,
> default to udhcpc.

If you allowed the user to specify which dhcp client ifup should use,
you'd pretty much have to specify the whole command (since different
dhcp clients take different command-line arguments). Right now, we
have that in CVS (dhcp-start-cmd and dhcp-stop-cmd).

Eric pointed out that this is really not DHCP anymore, it's more of a
generic 'run this command to bring up the interface' mechanism. And
that Debian's original ifupdown already had that, and it was called
'manual' -- i.e., manually specify how the interface should be handled
by ifupdown.

So, we want the following (anybody correct me if I got this wrong):

	- automatically do the right thing (just work) when we specify
	  a known interface type (static, dhcp, ppp, etc.)

	- allow for a generic mechanism to bring up an interface via
	  a user-specified command ('manual' type, to be implemented)

	- for the well-known types:

		a) if busybox offers a client, use only that, and
		   expect people to use 'manual' if they want their
		   own alternative clients

		b) if busybox does not offer a client, have ifupdown
		   try the most popular client names in some sort of
		   sequence. Once busybox does start offer a client,
		   move to option a) above.

I suppose what's happening here is that 'dhcp' is in the process of
being migrated from b) to a)  :)

Does that sound reasonable ?

Thanks,
Gabriel
_______________________________________________
busybox mailing list
busybox@busybox.net
http://busybox.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/busybox
[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread]