[ANNOUNCE] netplug, a daemon that handles network cables getting plugged in and out

[ANNOUNCE] netplug, a daemon that handles network cables getting plugged in and out

[Bryan O'Sullivan]

Netplug is a daemon that responds to network cables being plugged in or
out by bringing a network interface up or down.  This is extremely
useful for DHCP-managed systems that move around a lot, such as laptops
and systems in cluster environments.

For more details and download instructions, see the netplug homepage:
http://www.red-bean.com/~bos/

	<b

Re: [ANNOUNCE] netplug, a daemon that handles network cables getting plugged in and out

[Jeff Garzik]

Bryan O'Sullivan wrote:
> Netplug is a daemon that responds to network cables being plugged in or
> out by bringing a network interface up or down.  This is extremely
> useful for DHCP-managed systems that move around a lot, such as laptops
> and systems in cluster environments.
> 
> For more details and download instructions, see the netplug homepage:
> http://www.red-bean.com/~bos/


Does it make use of the link status notification stuff in 2.6.x?  ;-)

	Jeff

Re: [ANNOUNCE] netplug, a daemon that handles network cables getting plugged in and out

[Christoph Hellwig]

On Thu, Aug 28, 2003 at 02:21:52PM -0700, Bryan O'Sullivan wrote:
> Netplug is a daemon that responds to network cables being plugged in or
> out by bringing a network interface up or down.  This is extremely
> useful for DHCP-managed systems that move around a lot, such as laptops
> and systems in cluster environments.

What's the difference to / advantage over ifplugd?

Re: [ANNOUNCE] netplug, a daemon that handles network cables getting plugged in and out

[Bryan O'Sullivan]

On Thu, 2003-08-28 at 14:46, Christoph Hellwig wrote:

> What's the difference to / advantage over ifplugd?

They're about the same, but I didn't know of the existence of ifplugd
until just now.

	<b

Re: [ANNOUNCE] netplug, a daemon that handles network cables getting plugged in and out

[J.A. Magallon]

On 08.28, Bryan O'Sullivan wrote:
> Netplug is a daemon that responds to network cables being plugged in or
> out by bringing a network interface up or down.  This is extremely
> useful for DHCP-managed systems that move around a lot, such as laptops
> and systems in cluster environments.
> 
> For more details and download instructions, see the netplug homepage:
> http://www.red-bean.com/~bos/
> 

I feel sorry, but did you ever knew this existed ?

http://www.stud.uni-hamburg.de/users/lennart/projects/ifplugd/

:(

-- 
J.A. Magallon <jamagallon@able.es>      \                 Software is like sex:
werewolf.able.es                         \           It's better when it's free
Mandrake Linux release 9.2 (Cooker) for i586
Linux 2.4.22-jam1m (gcc 3.3.1 (Mandrake Linux 9.2 3.3.1-1mdk))

Re: [ANNOUNCE] netplug, a daemon that handles network cables getting plugged in and out

[Jeff Garzik]

J.A. Magallon wrote:
> On 08.28, Bryan O'Sullivan wrote:
> 
>>Netplug is a daemon that responds to network cables being plugged in or
>>out by bringing a network interface up or down.  This is extremely
>>useful for DHCP-managed systems that move around a lot, such as laptops
>>and systems in cluster environments.
>>
>>For more details and download instructions, see the netplug homepage:
>>http://www.red-bean.com/~bos/
>>
> 
> 
> I feel sorry, but did you ever knew this existed ?
> 
> http://www.stud.uni-hamburg.de/users/lennart/projects/ifplugd/


ifplugd doesn't appear to use netlink.  Did I miss something?

netlink is definitely the preferred way to get link notification.  Maybe 
the two authors can work together to merge the best parts of both...

	Jeff

Re: [ANNOUNCE] netplug, a daemon that handles network cables getting plugged in and out

[J.A. Magallon]

On 08.29, Jeff Garzik wrote:
> J.A. Magallon wrote:
> > On 08.28, Bryan O'Sullivan wrote:
> > 
> >>Netplug is a daemon that responds to network cables being plugged in or
> >>out by bringing a network interface up or down.  This is extremely
> >>useful for DHCP-managed systems that move around a lot, such as laptops
> >>and systems in cluster environments.
> >>
> >>For more details and download instructions, see the netplug homepage:
> >>http://www.red-bean.com/~bos/
> >>
> > 
> > 
> > I feel sorry, but did you ever knew this existed ?
> > 
> > http://www.stud.uni-hamburg.de/users/lennart/projects/ifplugd/
> 
> 
> ifplugd doesn't appear to use netlink.  Did I miss something?
> 
> netlink is definitely the preferred way to get link notification.  Maybe 
> the two authors can work together to merge the best parts of both...
> 

That would be very nice, but there is still a problem.
Does netlink solve the fact that there are cards (at least in 2.4)
that do not support any detection method:

ne2k-pci
    SIOCETHTOOL failed (Operation not permitted)
    SIOCGMIIPHY failed (Operation not permitted)
    SIOCDEVPRIVATE failed (Operation not supported)

3c59x (3c980-TX)
    SIOCETHTOOL failed (Operation not permitted)
    SIOCGMIIPHY failed (Operation not permitted)
    SIOCDEVPRIVATE: unplugged

3c59x (3c905C-TX/TX-M)
    SIOCETHTOOL failed (Operation not supported)
    SIOCGMIIPHY: link beat detected
    SIOCDEVPRIVATE: link beat detected
 
e100
    SIOCETHTOOL: link beat detected
    SIOCGMIIPHY: link beat detected
    SIOCDEVPRIVATE failed (Operation not supported)

e1000
    SIOCETHTOOL: link beat detected
    SIOCGMIIPHY: link beat detected
    SIOCDEVPRIVATE failed (Operation not supported)

-- 
J.A. Magallon <jamagallon@able.es>      \                 Software is like sex:
werewolf.able.es                         \           It's better when it's free
Mandrake Linux release 9.2 (Cooker) for i586
Linux 2.4.22-jam1m (gcc 3.3.1 (Mandrake Linux 9.2 3.3.1-1mdk))

Re: [ANNOUNCE] netplug, a daemon that handles network cables getting plugged in and out

[Bryan O'Sullivan]

On Thu, 2003-08-28 at 15:45, J.A. Magallon wrote:

> That would be very nice, but there is still a problem.
> Does netlink solve the fact that there are cards (at least in 2.4)
> that do not support any detection method:

netlink doesn't work through the ioctl interface at all.  If a card is
capable of reporting that its flags include IFF_UP or IFF_RUNNING via
the netlink interface, then netplug will work.

	<b

Re: [ANNOUNCE] netplug, a daemon that handles network cables getting plugged in and out

[Aaron Lehmann]

On Thu, Aug 28, 2003 at 02:21:52PM -0700, Bryan O'Sullivan wrote:
> Netplug is a daemon that responds to network cables being plugged in or
> out by bringing a network interface up or down.  This is extremely
> useful for DHCP-managed systems that move around a lot, such as laptops
> and systems in cluster environments.
> 
> For more details and download instructions, see the netplug homepage:
> http://www.red-bean.com/~bos/

Thank you, thank you, thank you. I was just thinking today how
annoying it is that whenever I boot up my laptop, dhclient runs and tries
to get an IP address on the ethernet interface until it's ^C'd. Since
I often use the Ethernet interface this is not a bad default, but dhclient
can't even realize on its own that there's no cable plugged in.

Re: [ANNOUNCE] netplug, a daemon that handles network cables getting plugged in and out

[David T Hollis]

Aaron Lehmann wrote:

>On Thu, Aug 28, 2003 at 02:21:52PM -0700, Bryan O'Sullivan wrote:
>  
>
>>Netplug is a daemon that responds to network cables being plugged in or
>>out by bringing a network interface up or down.  This is extremely
>>useful for DHCP-managed systems that move around a lot, such as laptops
>>and systems in cluster environments.
>>
>>For more details and download instructions, see the netplug homepage:
>>http://www.red-bean.com/~bos/
>>    
>>
>
>Thank you, thank you, thank you. I was just thinking today how
>annoying it is that whenever I boot up my laptop, dhclient runs and tries
>to get an IP address on the ethernet interface until it's ^C'd. Since
>I often use the Ethernet interface this is not a bad default, but dhclient
>can't even realize on its own that there's no cable plugged in.
>-
>To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
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>Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/
>  
>
Hmm, that seems to raise the question - why doesn't dhclient just handle 
that?  On a DHCP interface, it's running anyway.  if it paid attention 
to link status, it would know when to re-request an IP.  If you are 
statically assigned, you don't really care anyway.

Re: [ANNOUNCE] netplug, a daemon that handles network cables getting plugged in and out

[Bryan O'Sullivan]

On Thu, 2003-08-28 at 19:11, David T Hollis wrote:

> Hmm, that seems to raise the question - why doesn't dhclient just handle 
> that?

Because it has as little knowledge of how the OS works as possible. 
It's intended to run on all kinds of Unix platforms, not just Linux.

> On a DHCP interface, it's running anyway.  if it paid attention 
> to link status, it would know when to re-request an IP.

There are no cross-platform standards for this kind of thing, so they'd
need modules for Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, AIX, etc., etc.  I'm sure
they'd be happy to accept patches.

	<b

Re: [ANNOUNCE] netplug, a daemon that handles network cables getting plugged in and out

[Stefan Rompf]

Hi,

> That would be very nice, but there is still a problem.
> Does netlink solve the fact that there are cards (at least in 2.4)
> that do not support any detection method:

even in 2.6 not all cards support link state via netlink, it requires some 
updates to the driver. Maintainers should take this as a hint to add 
netif_carrier_on()/_off() or mii_check_link()/mii_check_media()-calls ;-).

This does not hurt for 2.4 as these functions are already available there, but 
do not create notifications in the stock kernel.

Stefan
-- 
"doesn't work" is not a magic word to explain everything.