Bug#554194: ifupdown virtual package name and mass-filing (if accepted)
On Sat, Jan 16, 2010 at 06:09:19PM +0100, Bill Allombert wrote:
> On Sat, Jan 16, 2010 at 03:31:28PM +0100, Wouter Verhelst wrote:
> > On Thu, Nov 05, 2009 at 09:54:37AM +0100, martin f krafft wrote:
> > [...response that is not very relevant to this mail...]
> >
> > There was no further discussion on this item since the above date. Since
> > I've recently uploaded ipcfg, I'd like this to be finalized. It
> > currently uses 'ifupdown' as the name to conflict/replace/provide, but I
> > don't consider that to be a particularly good idea.
> >
> > I'm suggesting that the package name 'network-config-tool' be described
> > as a tool for a package providing 'ifup' and 'ifdown' binaries. These
> > should provide the following interface:
> >
> > - support 'ifup <interface name>' or 'ifdown <interface name>' to bring
> > an interface up or down, consistently with configuration, and exit
> > with non-zero if either operation fails.
>
> Is ifup "eth0=foo" supported ?
Should be fairly easy to add that to ipcfg, which might be a good idea.
Let's make that part of the interface, too.
> > - may provide a virtual interface name that does not map to an actual
> > physical interface name, but instead uses internal logic to decide
> > what to do.
>
> Is not there a namespace issues wrt other interface that should be clarified ?
There are namespace issues, but I don't think they should be explained
in the interface specification; the tools should do so in their
documentation.
This is a "may" part of the specification, not a "should".
> > - ifup and ifdown should support a '-a' or '--all' option to configure
> > or deconfigure 'all' interfaces. Here, 'all' is defined as 'all
> > interfaces for which the tool's configuration defines that they should
> > be brought up or down with the -a option'.
>
> OK.
>
> > - ifup and ifdown should support a '-v' or '--verbose' option to aid in
> > debugging.
>
> This requirement does not feel necessary.
If a tool calls ifup, it may wish to call it with -v to provide some
output to the user should bringing the interface up fail, which can be
useful. Perhaps it should be clarified that the output format of -v is
undefined.
> > - ifup and ifdown should support hook scripts in
> > /etc/network/if-*.d:
> > - the tool should provide a way for the user to set configuration
> > values through environment variables, the name of which start with
> > IF_
> > - the tool should provide PHASE and MODE variables, describing what
> > we're trying to do
> > - (since I could not find a formal specification of the if-*.d hook
> > script interface, I may have missed some things; if so, please let
> > me know)
Obviously this also needs the IFACE= environment variable, defining the
interface on which we work.
--
The biometric identification system at the gates of the CIA headquarters
works because there's a guard with a large gun making sure no one is
trying to fool the system.
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2009/01/biometrics.html
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