Linux BOOTP server: questions

[Nathan E Norman <finn@midco.net>]

Hi,

I'm setting up a Linux box to act as a BOOTP server - a Win95 box was
trying to do the job before.

I have one question:  the bootpd man-page says

       When bootpd is started  it  reads  a  configuration  file,
       (normally  /etc/bootptab)  that  initializes  the internal
       database of known clients and client options.  This inter­
       nal  database is reloaded from the configuration file when
       bootpd receives a hangup signal (SIGHUP) or when  it  dis­
       covers that the configuration file has changed.

I wonder what "when it discovers that the configuration file has
changed" means.  Does it "keep an eye" on the file?

I haven't yet downloaded the code to dig through this in hopes that
someone uses bootpd now and knows the answer :)  I can think of other
ways to ensure that bootpd always has its fresh config, such as running
it from inetd with a very low timeout value, but this may hurt the
performance.

I need bootpd to reload itself "transparently" since the bootptab and
all the TFTP associated files are created by a Windows user and stored
on the Linux box through the magic of Samba.  They don't know jack about
Linux, and I don't want them to.

For the truly curious, the devices making the BOOTP requests are LANCity
cable modems :)

--
Nathan Norman
MidcoNet  410 South Phillips Avenue  Sioux Falls, SD
mailto:finn@midco.net           http://www.midco.net
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