Re: [system-tools] CVS Branched

[Carlos Garnacho <carlosg gnome org>]

Hi Juan Luis :)

On Sun, 2004-08-08 at 22:31 +0000, Juan Luis Baptiste wrote:
> > Network tool
> > ============
> > This one is worth of many changes:
> >
> > - instead of letting the tool configure eth0,1,2... interfaces, even
> > when they doesn't exist, provide already a fixed list of existing
> > interfaces, which can be already configured or not, it would require a
> > XML change, but would bring lots of advantages and portability fixes
> 
> I don't understand this one very well, can you elaborate a little more on this 
> one please?

Sure, my idea was to show already in the XML the whole list of available
supported interfaces (a la ifconfig -a) in this fashion:

<interfaces>
  <interface>
    <dev>eth0</dev>
    <type>TYPE_ETHERNET</type>
    <enabled>0</enabled>
    <configuration>
      <auto>0</auto>
      <bootproto>dhcp</bootproto>
    </configuration>
  </interface>

  <interface>
    <dev>eth1</dev>
    <type>TYPE_WIFI</type>
    <enabled>1</enabled>
    <configuration>
      <auto>0</auto>
      <bootproto>none</bootproto>
      <address>192.168.2.21</address>
      <netmask>255.255.255.0</netmask>
      <network>192.168.2.0</network>
      <gateway>192.168.2.1</gateway>
      <essid>my_essid</essid>
    </configuration>
  </interface>

  <interface>
    <dev>irlan0</dev>
    <type>TYPE_IRLAN</type>
    <enabled>0</enabled>
    <configuration/>
  </interface>
</interfaces>

Instead of letting the frontend to add any interface (even if it doesn't
exist in the system), you already have a closed list with all the
existing interfaces (and types) and you only have to worry to
fill/modify/clear the <configuration> tag. It IMHO fixes:

- better support for still unsupported interfaces: for example,
slackware has no way of configuring irlan interfaces, this way we can
prevent those interfaces to be shown in the frontend, and thus, to be
configured too

- better support of odd OS (compared to linux): for supporting somewhat
correctly FreeBSD, the network frontend has to ask the correct interface
name for a given type when creating an interface through the
"get_interface_name" directive (we can't hardcode eth for ethernet
interfaces, it can be dc,bfe,ed...). This way all this info is already
in the XML

- better support for wi-fi cards: it happens the same, they can be eth,
wlan, ath... and instead of asking to the backend we can have already
this info.

- simplify frontend: right now there's too much logical weight in the
frontends (yours and mine) which should be in the backend, as it's
supposed to know about the system

Of course this idea is still an idea, so I'd like to get feedback, what
do you think? :)

	Carlos

> 
> Cheers,