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

[Chris Hanson]

martin f krafft wrote:
> Chris, your ideas sound very interesting and are well
> formulated/organised. Thanks for your input!
> 
> I am a Debian developer and (one of) the father(s) of the netconf
> idea, which is a revamp of Debian's ifupdown:
> http://netconf.alioth.debian.org. I am starting to code on Saturday
> at Debcamp. You can see some of the ideas related to netconf on the
> wiki as well as the design document linked from there.

Yes, Thomas brought this to my attention a while ago when you started 
the project, and I've been lurking on the mailing list since then.

> What is autonet? Is it vapourware or already in use?

I have to say it's vaporware, although I did write some code, which I've 
attached.  You're welcome to use it as you see fit.

> From what you write, it seems like we have more or less the same
> ideas. Would you be interested in cooperation? I think your
> expertise and experience with the mit.edu domain would be a great
> benefit to my efforts of writing netconf, which I do intend to
> eventually make Debian's primary network configuration management
> system. Thus, you would benefit from such a cooperation as well.

Well, if I had more time I'd be interested, but since that time I've 
become insanely busy doing other things, and I no longer have time to 
work on anything else.  But I'm happy to discuss stuff if needed, and 
I'll continue to lurk on the list.

> This may be among the only points where we differ: I don't really
> want to use XML because it's cumbersome for the poor admin. We'll
> see though, since I am aware of the benefits of XML.

XML is just a format I'm familiar with, and it has interesting 
properties.  If I was doing this today I'd probably use RDF instead. 
But I have no particular attachment to any given syntax; what matters to 
me is the expressiveness of the configuration language.

>> The binding layer is not yet written.  But there is a working design
>> for the configuration language, of which the above is a sample.
> 
> Hm, but this sounds tempting. Could I have a look at this language?
> It seems that it covers a little more than what I want to achieve
> with netconf, as such things as interface naming and driver
> selection are handled by udev in Debian now.

The attached tarball has a reasonably extensive example.

> It would be an honour if we combined efforts. May I invite you to
> join our mailing list?

Thanks; I think I'll take you up on that mailing-list invitation.  :)
> 
>   http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/netconf-devel
> 
> Alternatively, you may find me and soon others on
> #netconf/irc.debian.org. I have requested membership on
> your list, debian-net-admin.

Hmmm... I didn't see that request, and I just checked and there is no 
pending request.  Did Thomas take care of it for you?  In any case, the 
list has been idle for some time now, so there's little point in 
subscribing except to see the archive.

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