Re: Bug#19129: sendmail: support PPP links --- use /etc/ppp/ip-up.d
Hi,
I'd just like to make my position (as ppp maintainer) clear on this ip-up/down
issue (I've been off skiing for a week, so have not been able to get involved
before this).
People seem to be drawing a couple of false conclusions from the fact that I
changed the ip-up/down scripts to use run-parts:
a) I made some sort of unilateral policy decision about how ip-up/down
scripts should work.
b) I was sanctioning all and sundry to include ip-(up|down).d/ scripts in
their packages, so that every time the ppp link came up all hell would
break loose.
I don't consider either of these to be the true.
As in ppp shipped the ip-up/down scripts do nothing. This was the case before
the inclusion the run-parts line, and it still is. The intent (as it always
was) is that the script was provided as a hint for a local sysadmin to aid
them in setting up their ppp connection.
I doubt very much if there is a single package that could justify having
anything run by ip-up/down by default, without at least asking the user in the
postinst if that was what they required. Any package that does install such a
script is almost certainly a bug IMHO.
I for one have a diald setup that includes over twenty dial-on-demand links,
only on of which is to my ISP. I certainly don't want to kick my MTA each
time I dial into one of my clients, because it would make diald go nuts, and I
cannot see the point of doing bind reloads either (although I don't suppose it
would do any harm).
If people think they have a package that needs something to be run by ppp's
ip-up/down they should either put something about it in their packages README,
or include an example script under /usr/doc, or perhaps prompt the user about
it in their packages postinst. This was the case before I included the
run-parts line, and I don't see how I've changed that.
I'm not particularly convinced by the /etc/ppp/ip.conf idea. It's fine for
simple setups, but if you are going to have to hack scripts to conditionally
start depending upon which ppp link just came up, then the simple ON/OFF
switch is pretty worthless.
I would be much happier if packages provided example scripts that the sysadmin
could either just copy into place, or edit to suit their needs. I suppose
they can always suggest installing a script in the postinst, if the package
maintainer thinks it would be useful for the vast majority of users.
It would be nice if we could make it so that a new linux user could get an
Internet connection up after a few minutes of point-and-drool, without making
life hard for the people that have weird and wonderful setups (like Manoj and
me).
Perhaps we need a configuration file /etc/userlevel, which contains something
ranging from ``neophyte'' to ``guru'', so postinst's can decide what to ask
the user. ;-)
Cheers, Phil.
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