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

[Brandon Gooch]

On Mon, Apr 26, 2010 at 10:02 PM, Jeremy Chadwick
<freebsd at jdc.parodius.com> wrote:
> On Tue, Apr 27, 2010 at 09:48:41AM +1000, Phil wrote:
>> Jeremy,
>> A good proposal to improve start-up robustness. If I may suggest,
>> waitnetwork_ip should include a short list of alternate IP's in
>> the event of a local network outage, or DOS, etc.  Something like:
>> waitnetwork_ip="IP1 IP2 IP3"
>>
>> Having multiple target IP's will improve the likelihood of timely
>> booting when silly/nasty things happen on the wider network.
>>
>> Good idea to have incorporated into the base system.
>
> Phil,
>
> I brought this point up in my post on -rc and -net, actually.  I've
> since extended the script to support multiple IPs in $waitnetwork_ip
> (wasn't that hard).  The logic is that if any of the IPs pass the ping
> test, then the network connection is considered usable.
>
> Attached is the modified script.  I'll be updating the version on my
> server (HTTP) momentarily.
>
> --
> | Jeremy Chadwick                                   jdc at parodius.com |
> | Parodius Networking                       http://www.parodius.com/ |
> | UNIX Systems Administrator                  Mountain View, CA, USA |
> | Making life hard for others since 1977.              PGP: 4BD6C0CB |
>
>
> #!/bin/sh
> #
> # $FreeBSD: $
> #
>
> # PROVIDE: waitnetwork
> # REQUIRE: NETWORKING
> # BEFORE: mountcritremote
> # KEYWORD: nojail
>
> # XXX - Once/if committed to base, it's better to have mountcritremote
> # XXX - REQUIRE waitnetwork, rather than use the above BEFORE line.
>
> . /etc/rc.subr
>
> name="waitnetwork"
> rc_var=`set_rcvar`
>
> start_cmd="waitnetwork_start"
> stop_cmd=":"
>
> # XXX - Once/if committed to base, the following defaults should
> # XXX - be placed into src/etc/defaults/rc.conf instead of here
> # XXX - Also be sure to keep waitnetwork_ip="" commented out!
>
> waitnetwork_enable="NO"         # Wait for network availability before
>                                # continuing with NETWORKING rc scripts
> #waitnetwork_ip=""              # IP address to ping
> waitnetwork_count="5"           # ping count (see ping(8) -c flag)
> waitnetwork_timeout="60"        # ping timeout (see ping(8) -t flag)
>
> waitnetwork_start()
> {
>        local ip rc success
>
>        success=0
>
>        if [ -z "${waitnetwork_ip}" ]; then
>                warn "You must define one or more IP addresses in waitnetwork_ip"
>                return
>        fi
>
>        for ip in ${waitnetwork_ip}; do
>                echo "Waiting for ${ip} to respond to ICMP..."
>
>                if [ -z "${waitnetwork_timeout}" ]; then
>                        /sbin/ping -c ${waitnetwork_count} ${ip} >/dev/null 2>&1
>                        rc=$?
>                else
>                        info "Using timeout of ${waitnetwork_timeout} seconds"
>                        /sbin/ping -t ${waitnetwork_timeout} -c ${waitnetwork_count} ${ip} >/dev/null 2>&1
>                        rc=$?
>                fi
>
>                if [ $rc -eq 0 ]; then
>                        echo "Host reachable; network considered available."
>                        return
>                else
>                        echo "No response from host."
>                fi
>        done
>
>        echo "Exhausted IP list.  Continuing with startup, but be aware you may"
>        echo "not have a fully functional networking layer at this point."
> }
>
> load_rc_config $name
> run_rc_command "$1"

Not to hijack the thread, but this type of clean, quality work (even
though some consider it a hack), really helps a lot of people out.

I wonder, has anyone ever brought up the idea of an "rc repository" or
something similar, for rc scripts and/or configs that may help many,
but for whatever reason, will not be included in the base system?

I'm thinking of something more "official", hosted at the freebsd.org
domain. Maybe in the same vein as:

http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/home/index.jsp

Shields up,

-Brandon