Self-Introduction: Denis Ovsienko and /etc/net project

[Bruno Wolff III]

Resurected from the past.

On Mon, Nov 07, 2005 at 14:48:55 -0500,
  Bill Nottingham <notting at redhat.com> wrote:
> Denis Ovsienko (linux at pilot.org.ua) said: 
> > Those who edit ifcfg-eth0 once a year will not want to learn a new way to do it.
> > But those who need more than current initscripts (Ok, network part of
> > initscripts) can provide, are left with rc.local and an editor. Here is a
> > list of what currently /etc/net can do but initscripts can't:
> > - QoS
> > - inter-interface dependencies
> > - configuration profiles
> > - multi-host configuration
> > - routing rules
> > - ifrename support
> > - ifplugd support
> > [...]
> > - EXTENSIBLE DESIGN
> > 
> > I (and other people) find solutions of everyday tasks with /etc/net. I don't
> > want to make others think the way I do, but I need a way to give people choice
> > freedom within FC. This freedom is demanded.
> 
> Generally... network-scripts will eventually go away - things will 
> be moved to a framework involving NetworkManager. Hence, I don't
> believe pulling in an entirely different framework in the interim
> is really worth it.
> 
> Bill

NetworkManager doesn't seem to be evolving toward providing full use of
the network tools (e.g. multiple networks on an interface, bridging, routing,
QoS). It seems to be very oriented toward convenient use in simple cases.

If it is not going to ever give access to the more advanced networking
features, I think there is a reason to replace the current network
configuration scripts with something like etcnet.

Sure you can add commands in rc.local to set up the network properly, but
then ifup and ifdown don't work correctly (in the general case) and neither
does changing between run levels where the network gets turned off or on.

etcnet does seem to be continuing to be developed, but it looks like they
aren't continuing to provide Fedora specific installations.