Debian netbase 3.17-1 init.d scripts

[Jeff Sheinberg <jeffsh@erols.com>]

Hi,

Here is my current init.d/network file,

    #! /bin/sh
    
    # Masquerading requires that `forwarding' be enabled.
    echo "1"  >/proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward
    
    # Masquerading highly recommends that `always defrag' be enabled.
    echo "1"  >/proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_always_defrag
    
    # Log packets with impossible addresses to kernel log.
    echo "1"  >/proc/sys/net/ipv4/conf/all/log_martians
    echo "1"  >/proc/sys/net/ipv4/conf/default/log_martians
    
    # Masquerade `eth0'.
    ipchains -P forward DENY
    ipchains -A forward -s 192.168.1.0/24 -j MASQ
    
    # Configure `lo' on `localnet'.
    ifconfig lo 127.0.0.1
    
    # Configure `eth0' on `homenet'.
    ifconfig  eth0 192.168.1.22 up
    
    # Configure `dummy0' on `dummynet'.
    ifconfig dummy0 172.16.0.1 up
    
    # /etc/init.d/network - end of file.

so, how does your new scheme cleanly handle, in my case,
everything that I need to do to setup masquerading properly?

I would need to add a function to init.d/networking, and config
options to network/options.  So, changing 2 things in 2 different
places - not my idea of `configuration' at all - especially when
right now I have some simple commands in just one place.

Make that 3 places - I now need to muck with network/interfaces
also!  And I just tried dpkg-reconfigure netbase - how come I
didn't get asked any questions about my interfaces?

And what is ifup (a c program) all about?  Don't we already have
ifconfig, the canonical (c) program to configure interfaces?

Also, pon does not configure interfaces, is just calls pppd which
does any necessary interface configuration.

And to throw this stuff into frozen potato without any
documentation that at least describes what problem you are trying
to solve and how you have solved it.

I appreciate it that you seem to be trying to come up with a
better way, but it seems to me that you have lost direction - let
me be generous and say that beta level code for something as
fundamental as basic networking configuration does not belong in
frozen.

Thanks,
-- 
Jeff Sheinberg  <jeffsh@erols.com>