cvs commit: src/etc/defaults rc.conf src/etc/rc.d dhclient

[Robert Watson]

On Mon, 28 Jul 2003, Martin Blapp wrote:

> > Forgive me for not having time to go read the dhclient details, but
> > unfortunately I'm a bit pressed for time this morning.  I just wanted to
> > confirm that dhclient gives a "first reasonable try" if the link is up in
> > this situation, rather than immediately backgrounding, since some services
> > will behave poorly if they don't find IP addresses, etc.  Ie., this
> > operates like the NFS mount background option: "If at first you don't
> > succeed, try again on your *own* time".
> >
> > The services I have in mind are, indeed, network file system mounting,
> > sandboxed named, sendmail, and third party applications that like to bind
> > each IP address manually rather than use INADDR_ANY.
> 
> and natd (where I've fixed the rc script to work with the dhclient case) 
> 
> The problem here is that a box not connected to lan with dhcp hangs till
> you press CTRL C. 

Well, or a minute or two, but I agree that in the notebook disconnected
from a network case, that's not much fun.

> If this change provides errors in some setups, I'll revert it and add a
> option to dhclient to wait at least 5 seconds if no lease has been
> aquired.

This is something we'll probably want to play by ear -- trading off boot
time and making sure that the right services are there to support various
kinds of activities.  I think part of the real solution is likely to
improve the behavior of some of our applications in the presence of
changing network configuration.  A few more apps probably need to learn
about routing sockets so they can pick up IP address change notifications,
interface arrival/departure, etc. 

Robert N M Watson             FreeBSD Core Team, TrustedBSD Projects
robert at fledge.watson.org      Network Associates Laboratories