Network Manager doesn't play nice

[brian]

On 10/13/2009 12:47 PM, Tait Clarridge wrote:
> On Tue, 2009-10-13 at 12:22 -0400, brian wrote:
>> On 10/13/2009 12:11 PM, Frank Cox wrote:
>>> On Tue, 13 Oct 2009 11:16:45 -0400
>>> brian wrote:
>>>
>>>> Now, I had the file backed up anyway but I don't see any warning in the
>>>> docs that it does this. Is it just me, or is this rather shoddy
>>>> behaviour on NM's part?
>>>
>>> By default, NM sets up a "complete" Internet connection for you.  Part of that
>>> is creating a resolv.conf file.
>>>
>>
>> I understand that. The point I was trying to make is that it destroyed
>> an existing file in the process. It's very simple to write software that
>> avoids doing that.
>
> But if it is setup to not recreate the resolv.conf (which you can change
> I believe) then there would be a lot of complaints from people who
> cannot figure out resolv.conf for themselves.
>
> If I recall correctly you should be able to add PEERDNS=no to
> your /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-ethX file (where X is the
> interface number eg. eth0) and it shouldn't overwrite it.
>

Maybe I'm not being clear enough. IMHO, if a file--especially something 
as basic as resolv.conf--exists, it should never be overwritten by some 
app without backing it up first. Think of all those .rpmnew files, for 
instance. It seems to me a bit ridiculous that NM would just blow away 
the file like that. ESPECIALLY as it replaces the contents with nothing 
but comments.

I think this is a huge oversight. It's an all-or-nothing approach that 
leaves a box blind to DNS if the user decides (as in my case) that NM is 
not actually required/desired.

Thanks for the tip about PEERDNS, though.