Re: [PATCH] tools: Fix network-bridge to work with Gentoo

[Dan Smith <danms@us.ibm.com>]

JM> This patch fixes domU networking in Gentoo.  The change to
JM> ifup/ifdown (which isn't availabe in Gentoo) prevents the bridge
JM> from being setup correctly.  The patch below checks if ifup is
JM> avaiable, and if not starts the Gentoo networking scripts.

This brings up the idea about how we can be as distro-friendly as
possible when it comes to network configuration.

How about if we replace the distro-specific bits of the network-bridge
script with calls out to a dedicated one, after we determine which
distro we're on?  That way, we can cleanly add support for a new
distro, without adding a bunch of if-then-elsif's to the main script.

Also, it would allow the distros to easily maintain and plug in their
own scripts to integrate with their network configuration utilities.
That way, they wouldn't have to maintain a patch to the monolithic xen
script.  They could just drop their module into, say,
/etc/xen/scripts/distros/redhat.sh, or something similar.

I think that if we were to make a standard function interface (like
LSB) that the scripts implement, then we could just source them and
use their functions to carry out the wishes of the more complex logic
in the master network-bridge script.

Thoughts?

-- 
Dan Smith
IBM Linux Technology Center
Open Hypervisor Team
email: danms@us.ibm.com