On Mon, 9 May 2022 at 08:07, Steve Langasek <
vorlon@debian.org> wrote:
On Sun, May 08, 2022 at 11:24:12AM -0400, Michael Stone wrote:
[apologies to package aliases getting this twice due to autocomplete
fail]
I've been trying to make sense of the NEWS item in isc-dhcp-client (that alternatives are needed) in combination with the functionality of
ifupdown
and what the implications are for debian upgrades generally.
isc-dhcp-client as of the last upgrade is telling users to stop using it (the default dhcp client for debian).
ifupdown (the traditional tool for managing networking on debian systems) has a Recommends on "isc-dhcp-client | dhcp-client". "dhcp-client" is a virtual package provided by "dhcpcanon" (version 0.8.5, which hasn't been touched in 4 years), "isc-dhcp-client", and "dhcpcd5" (which will trash a working configuration managed by ifupdown if installed, as it will try to take over interfaces currently set, e.g., to manual). This seems
suboptimal
at best.
I believe that ifupdown will attempt to use udhcpd if installed, which should be a mostly-transparent change (except for the potential loss of lease information and any customization of dhclient scripts) but it isn't even on the ifupdown recommends list.
ifupdown also (used to?) use pump, but that package went away a long time ago.
So what's the path forward, maintaining compatibility and not breaking systems upgrading from current stable? Do we come up with a dhcpcd5
variant
that *only* touches interfaces it is directed to touch via /etc/network/interfaces? Do we add udhcpcd to the "dhcp-client" virtual package and/or make it the default for ifupdown? Do we fork isc's dhcp
suite
and just continue to use dhclient? Revive pump? Something else?
Not an answer to your question, but a related issue I'll mention here.
Ubuntu no longer uses isc-dhcp by default, because it no longer uses ifupdown; NetworkManager and networkd both have their own implementations
of
dhcp clients which are used by preference. *However*, isc-dhcp is still installed as part of all Ubuntu systems, because it is the only client implementation that integrates with initramfs-tools (/usr/share/initramfs-tools/hooks/zz-dhclient) so if you are using nfsroot
or any other network-based rootfs, it appears to still be the only game in town. It would be a good idea to make sure as part of the deprecation of isc-dhcp-client that we get initramfs integration of whatever is the preferred replacement.
Well busybox's udhcpc would seem a likely candidate here -- but its IPv6 support (iirc the reason we switch to dhclient from klibc's ipconfig in Ubuntu's initramfs, at least) is described as incomplete.
Cheers,
mwh
<div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><br></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Mon, 9 May 2022 at 08:07, Steve Langasek <<a href="mailto:
vorlon@debian.org">
vorlon@debian.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_
quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">On Sun, May 08, 2022 at 11:24:12AM -0400, Michael Stone wrote:<br>
> [apologies to package aliases getting this twice due to autocomplete fail]<br>
> I've been trying to make sense of the NEWS item in isc-dhcp-client (that<br>
> alternatives are needed) in combination with the functionality of ifupdown<br>
> and what the implications are for debian upgrades generally.<br>
> isc-dhcp-client as of the last upgrade is telling users to stop using it<br>
> (the default dhcp client for debian).<br>
> ifupdown (the traditional tool for managing networking on debian systems)<br>
> has a Recommends on "isc-dhcp-client | dhcp-client". "dhcp-client" is a<br>
> virtual package provided by "dhcpcanon" (version 0.8.5, which hasn't been<br>
> touched in 4 years), "isc-dhcp-client", and "dhcpcd5" (which will trash a<br>
> working configuration managed by ifupdown if installed, as it will try to<br>
> take over interfaces currently set, e.g., to manual). This seems suboptimal<br>
> at best.<br>
> I believe that ifupdown will attempt to use udhcpd if installed, which<br> > should be a mostly-transparent change (except for the potential loss of<br>
> lease information and any customization of dhclient scripts) but it isn't<br>
> even on the ifupdown recommends list.<br>
> ifupdown also (used to?) use pump, but that package went away a long time<br>
> ago.<br>
> So what's the path forward, maintaining compatibility and not breaking<br>
> systems upgrading from current stable? Do we come up with a dhcpcd5 variant<br>
> that *only* touches interfaces it is directed to touch via<br>
> /etc/network/interfaces? Do we add udhcpcd to the "dhcp-client" virtual<br>
> package and/or make it the default for ifupdown? Do we fork isc's dhcp suite<br>
> and just continue to use dhclient? Revive pump? Something else?<br>
Not an answer to your question, but a related issue I'll mention here.<br>
Ubuntu no longer uses isc-dhcp by default, because it no longer uses<br> ifupdown; NetworkManager and networkd both have their own implementations of<br>
dhcp clients which are used by preference. *However*, isc-dhcp is still<br> installed as part of all Ubuntu systems, because it is the only client<br> implementation that integrates with initramfs-tools<br> (/usr/share/initramfs-tools/hooks/zz-dhclient) so if you are using nfsroot<br> or any other network-based rootfs, it appears to still be the only game in<br> town. It would be a good idea to make sure as part of the deprecation of<br> isc-dhcp-client that we get initramfs integration of whatever is the<br> preferred replacement.<br></blockquote><div><br></div><div>Well busybox's udhcpc would seem a likely candidate here -- but its IPv6 support (iirc the reason we switch to dhclient from klibc's ipconfig in Ubuntu's initramfs, at least) is
described as incomplete.</div><div><br></div><div>Cheers,</div><div>mwh</div></div></div>
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