Re: DHCP support

[Michael Banck]

On Thu, Apr 14, 2005 at 01:29:43AM +0200, Joachim Nilsson wrote:
> Alfred M. Szmidt wrote:
> > Roland McGrath wrote:
> > > Marco Gerards wrote:
> >> > What this patch does is preparing the state of the interfaces so
> >> > it can use 0.0.0.0 as address and broadcast.
> >> That has nothing to do with DHCP per se and shouldn't give the
> >> impression that it does.
> >Actually, it does.  The patch also sets up the routing table.  Which
> >is impossible to do without doing some serious hacking in pfinet,
> >adding a new interface, etc, so that one can use `route'.  And this is
> >needed for DHCP to work.
> 
> I'm inclined to agree with the last speaker.  What is it that's so wrong 
> with calling it dhcp?  It is, admittedly, a bit of a hack and would only 
> be used by DHCP so better be clear about it than try to obscure it like 
> the below early Linux "hackery".  But maybe that's what you'd like better 
> Roland?  Giving IP#, mask and broadcast of 0.0.0.0, 0.0.0.0, 
> 255.255.255.255.

As the DHCP script sets things to 0.0.0.0 anyway, I am a bit puzzled why
this has to be a user-visable option.

So far, I was under the assumption that a priori no setup of pfinet is
needed by the user/admin to get DHCP working, provided that the DHCP
script sets things correctly in preinit as suggested by Joachim.
However, that part is hidden in the mists of some script, so whether
that is called '--dhcp' or '-a 0.0.0.0 [...]' appears to be of no great
user impact to me.  Setting pfinet to --dhcp does not invoke dhclient
automatically once pfinet is started to being used, does it?

What do I miss?


Michael