Hi there, As you may know, netconf[0] sports a control socket with which you can control a running instance of the daemon. The idea is that tools like /sbin/ifup then are nothing more than clients of this socket, issuing the right commands to the daemon process. 0. http://netconf.alioth.debian.org/ Currently, the netconf control socket is implemented using, a pseudo-rfc822-based protocol (see [1] for some information). 1. http://git.debian.org/?p=netconf/netconf.git;a=blob;f=doc/control_socket.txt Many people have suggested using dbus for this, but I always refused because I did not want the dependency. I always wanted to make dbus optional, i.e. provide netconf-dbus which, when installed, links netconf in with the dbus infrastructure. However, that would be independendent of the control socket, for which I still need a protocol. While working on Ikiwiki, it dawned on me that I really ought to be using XML RPC for this [2]. Why? Because it's already there to do exactly the kind of thing I am doing, and standardised. Furthermore, dbus *is* XML RPC. 2. http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/netconf-devel/2007-October/000197.html Python (netconf is currently prototyped in Python) makes XML RPC trivial and does not introduce any new dependencies, except for python-dbus, if I want to use dbus instead of simple XML RPC. However, I do want (someone) to port netconf to C or C++ once I am comfortable with the design. In order to parse XML with C/C++, netconf would need to depend on e.g. libxmlrpc++0 or even libdbus-1-3 - static linking is out of the question for I'd prefer not to die a long and painful death caused by the security team. I want netconf to eventually replace ifupdown and thus become part of Debian's base system. Thus, I need to strive for minimal dependencies, and thus the XML RPC library needed by a C/C++ incarnation of netconf is a thorn in my flesh. Do you think that a libdbus-1-3 or libxmlrpc++0 dependency would be a showstopper (given how dbus is becoming a standard)? Or do you hold the opinion that there should be no question and dbus is the way forward? -- .''`. martin f. krafft <madduck@debian.org> : :' : proud Debian developer, author, administrator, and user `. `'` http://people.debian.org/~madduck - http://debiansystem.info `- Debian - when you have better things to do than fixing systems micro$oft windoze is like an air-conditioner: it breaks down if you open a window.
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