Bridge config in /etc/rc (patch)

[Doug Barton]

On Mon, 5 May 2003, Sean Hamilton wrote:

> Greetings,
>
> As I manage three FreeBSD bridges, I found it somewhat irritating that there
> was no convenient way of doing so.

I have to disagree with this. /etc/rc.local has always existed to handle
these kind of edge cases. I'm not even sure we want to have something like
this in /etc/rc.conf, because we already get complaints that there are too
many options, and it's too hard to configure. On the other hand, we have
the line of reasoning that says there should only be one place/method of
configuring boot time parameters.

My personal feeling is that /etc/defaults/rc.conf IS too complex, but I'm
not 100% sure how to proceed from that premise. Our focus so far has been
to bring rcNG into the tree, and make it do everything we need it to in
order to replace the old system. Our next topic is where to go from here.

That said, I appreciate your work, an I have some comments on it that
hopefully will help.

> Configuration goes like this:
>
> bridge_enable="YES"
> bridge_ifaces="fxp0,fxp1,fxp2"

I would prefer that this variable match the argument to sysctl. This not
only makes the conf file easier for people to configure (because there are
examples in the man page), but it also makes your code easier, since you
don't have to sed out the commas.

> or, for multiple bridges
>
> bridge_enable="YES"
> bridge0_ifaces="fxp3,fxp4,fxp5"
> bridge1_ifaces="rl0,rl1,dc0"

I'm also not thrilled about this, although I assume that you copied the
interface alias code, so it was reasonable for you to write it this way.
The problem is, I'm not sure what the best way to replace this is. The
problem btw is that if a user has 3 things (aliases, bridges, whatever),
and they want to comment out the first or second, the subsequent entries
must be renumbered, or the existing code misses them. That's not too hard
when you have only three entries, but when you have hundreds, it's a big
pita.

One way to do this is to use a seperate, free-form config file (like I did
today with devd.conf), but for something like this, we might as well just
teach users how to put it in /etc/rc.local, or /etc/sysctl.conf. But, we
have just started kicking this question around on the -rc list, so stay
tuned. :)

> Also allowed:
>
> bridge_ipfw="YES"
> bridge_ipfilter="YES"

If we decide to go with a config option for bridge, this is a reasonable
addition.

> I've also added an option, "ip_any_interface=YES" which sets
> net.inet.ip.check_interface to 0. This felt more natural than having the
> option, "ip_check_interface=NO".

Err... have to give this some thought.

> This is a first for me on several counts, so hopefully I've got everything
> right. Or should I be submitting this as a PR? It's not really a problem,
> so...

Well if you take a look at the PR database, you'll see that there are a
lot of examples of new functionality in there. However, posting it here
for comment is a fine first step, and I hope I haven't scared you off. If
you're interested in more details about this topic, take a look at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FreeBSD-rc/ and feel free to join the list.

Doug

-- 

    This .signature sanitized for your protection