[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

[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.

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

[Måns Rullgård]

David T Hollis <dhollis@davehollis.com> writes:

>>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.
> 
> 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.

Well, sometimes it's better to not have the interface configured UP
when there's no cable connected.  It avoids some very long timeouts
when some program tries to connect to something.  It's better to just
get a host unreachable error immediately.

-- 
Måns Rullgård
mru@users.sf.net

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