[gentoo-dev] Re: Opinions Wanted - Arrays again :)

[Duncan]

Roy Marples <uberlord@g.o> posted
1193395366.4312.14.camel@××××××××××××××××××.name, excerpted below, on 
Fri, 26 Oct 2007 11:42:46 +0100:

> On Fri, 2007-10-26 at 06:16 -0400, Richard Freeman wrote:
>> [H]ow about something like:
>>
>> address_eth0="1.2.3.4"
>> netmask_eth0="255.255.255.0"
>> broadcast_eth0="1.2.3.255"
[...]
>> options_eth0="bells and whistles"
>
> How would you construct that if you wanted to add 5 addresses to the
> interface?

>> I think you get the picture.

> We don't care what the actual options or values are, they are merely
> passed to ifconfig. Basically we need the equivalent of doing this
>
> ifconfig eth0 1.2.3.4 netmask 5.6.7.8 broadcast 1.2.3.4
> ifconfig eth0 5.6.7.8 netmask 1.2.3.4 broadcast 5.6.7.8
> ifconfig eth0 maybe some undocumented command
>
> And we do this with a few other tools as well. Lets take a list of
> preferred wireless AP's to connect to. How would you have that? As the
> only invalid character in an SSID is a NULL (daft, but I didn't write
> the specification)

Well, several services already have a "basic" setup using named vars, 
then something like Richard's suggested Options_eth0= as a (normally 
commented) catch-all for anything advanced that the admin wishes to pass 
"raw".  IMO the standard network stuff is well defined enough for that, 
perhaps with a couple of mode-toggles and/or counters thrown in.  (A 
counter like eth0_number_IPs= could default to one, for instance, but set 
to something higher and with the appropriate number of address_N_eth0= 
lines, it'd then cover your 5-address example, without having to worry 
about figuring out how many there are, since it's a given.)

I think that's what many of us would like and what this subthread is 
asking for, truth be told, but I also realize it's going to be more work 
setting it up -- but OTOH should be simpler for the user to setup so 
perhaps less bugs to deal with and the documentation in the net sample 
file should be somewhat simpler as well.  The more work thing is why I've 
not requested it before, but it'd be nice, and with others mentioning it 
now too, now's the time to speak up if I'm going to. =8^)

As for the wireless side, I've stuck to wired for all the usual reasons, 
so don't even pretend to know anything about wireless, nor to offer any 
sort of solution.  Perhaps even if the standard networking is setup with 
named vars, the wireless example you gave would be better left as 
"arrays" of whatever form?

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman

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