Re: dhc* in NetBSD 7.0

[Robert Elz <kre%munnari.OZ.AU@localhost>]

    Date:        Wed, 27 Mar 2013 17:20:13 +0000
    From:        Roy Marples <roy%marples.name@localhost>
    Message-ID:  <d49eb0692754b48421e62b5bfb98658c%mail.marples.name@localhost>

  | dhcpcd has grown into a network manager like application

Yes, I know, that is what I am not sure is a good thing, it really
should not need to do everything.

  | Well I do have to admin that defining how the wired is configured based 
  | on the SSID quite odd.

Perhaps.

  | Can you explain why you do this?

Sure, at work we have a normal kind of network, managed by typical
network manager types, with dhcp server, firewalls, and all that normal
stuff - to access it, the only option is to use the dhcp server to
assign addresses.

On the other hand, my network at home is very transitory, there are no fixed
systems just a cheap(ish) switch and whatever systems (mostly laptops) happen
to be there at the time that want to exchange data at a higher rate than
is available over the wireless net (which is how the world is reached).
On that net, there's no system suitable to run a dhcp server, so I just
statically configure addresses (there's plenty of available rfc1918 address
space so every system can have a fixed assigned address).

Then there's just the question of how to decide whether the systems should
use the dhcp config, or the static one - the one trivially easily visible
difference is the wireless network name - I know what names exist at work,
and at home (and a few other places I visit regularly) so I just look to
see what is there, and from that decide where I am, and then use the 
appropriate configuration.

  | Maybe dhcpcd can make it easier, or it's just outside its scope.

I hope the latter - I was not suggesting that dhcpcd be extended in any
way for this, I don't need that, what it does now is just fine (in that all
i need it to do is dhcp when dhcp is required).   if anything, I'd prefer
that dhcpcd be simplified to keep only the dhcp parts (thou perhaps some
of the extra is all so bound up in the config that dhcp is going to do
that for some uses it makes sense to keep it all.)

kre