[Fwd: [Debian-net-admin] autonet design]

[Gabor Gombas]

On Wed, Jun 06, 2007 at 11:40:55AM +0200, martin f krafft wrote:

> > What makes the binding layer different from other such programs is
> > that it operates by deduction rather than by prescription.  The
> > binding layer's inputs are almost entirely comprised of network/host
> > descriptions.  The inputs from the link layer filter and augment the
> > network descriptions in the configuration.  When a particular network
> > description is identified as the one an interface is connected to, the
> > actions needed to configure the interface's IP layer can be derived
> > from the network description.
> 
> … and the current state of the interface.

Definitely. I as an admin must be able to manually modify the state of
the interface with standard ifconfig/ip/etc. commands and the netconf
layer should _not_ override those settings. So the netconf layer should
detect "hey, the state of the interface does not match what I expect, so
I will not touch it until I'm explicitely told to do so again (even if
the link goes down & up because the cable was too short or the
switchport was reconfigured)".

I would absolutely hate if I had to edit configuration files when I
temporarily need an additional IP address or an IP address that does not
match the detected configuration of the network, or if I temporarily
want to route some traffic through some non-default gateway etc.

If I have to run a command that returns the interface in auto-managed
mode that's fine.

Gabor

-- 
     ---------------------------------------------------------
     MTA SZTAKI Computer and Automation Research Institute
                Hungarian Academy of Sciences
     ---------------------------------------------------------