rc(8) script -- waiting for the network to become usable

[Guido Falsi]

On Mon, Apr 26, 2010 at 01:08:15AM -0700, Jeremy Chadwick wrote:
> Foremost, sorry for the cross-post, but more eyes in this case means
> overall more discussion.  Secondly, please keep me CC'd as I'm not on
> either -rc or -net.
> 
> I recently proposed addition of a new script to the rc framework which
> verifies (using ping) that layer 3 network connectivity is up/functional
> before continuing on with daemons which require network access:
> 
> http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-stable/2010-April/056400.html
> 
> The overall response was positive, with full acknowledgement that this
> is indeed a hack -- yet necessary -- and that something more appropriate
> could probably be introduced into the base system to provide a much
> cleaner solution (launchd was mentioned).

I did read the original thread, and like the idea. I myself have servers
winth ntpd failing to configure tiself at boot due to this problem and
was thinking of some hack to force the behaviour you suggest.

So I obviously like your idea and would like to see this in the base
system.

Regarding launchd, I don't know much about it, but I do like the rc
system and having the boot sequence managed by scripts one can easily
modify to taste. I'd rather not modify this system with some daemon
performing obscure tasks based on some configuration file. The
flexibility given by scripts is imho, quite superior to any configurable
daemon's.

This is just my opinion, obviously. As stated I don't know much about
launchd, and it is quite possible that I have misconceptions about it,
so please don't flame me if I insulted it!

Thank you for your effort and work to bring this to the masses!

-- 
Guido Falsi <mad at madpilot.net>