Re: DHCP client with minimal functionality and size

[Roy Marples <roy%marples.name@localhost>]

On Thursday 20 March 2008 20:22:43 David Young wrote:
> Compatibility with dhclient-script would be nice.

And not very feasable. dhcpcd can be scripted to an extent, but not as much as 
dhclient.

>
> Roy, I have a few questions.
>
> 1) Have you tested running more than one dhcpcd on the same system,
>    each instance on a different interface?

Yes. Infact that's how it was desgined. However, it only works well on Linux 
boxes as you can have multiple default routes seperated by metric (lowest 
wins), something which no BSD as yet supports. I could try and make each 
dhcpcd instance talk to each other so one could replace the routes if one 
fails and on the same subnet or provided different routes, but I've not done 
that as yet as I think route metrics are a better idea.

>
> 2) Does the IPV4LL support do "claim & defend" per the RFC, or does it
>    rely on the kernel to do the defense?  Does it DTRT if IPV4LL numbers
>    collide?

It defends it's address about every 10 seconds, during which time it tries to 
obtain a DHCP address. Sadly, IPv4LL suffers the same issue as above - the LL 
route needs to work across >1 interface, which does not work on any BSD I 
know of.

Infact, that would be a good SoC project. Allow NetBSD to support metrics in 
routes.

> 3) Are you eligible for Summer of Code?  NetBSD still needs a compact
>    DHCP server.  If you are eligible, that would be a great GSoC project
>    for you to propose.

No I'm not :)
I'm in gainful full time employment, but have been a SoC mentor for Gentoo.
I have the time to be a mentor for projects I know well, but not to be a 
student. I'm an ex Gentoo dev, but still maintain the init system as an 
external project which I aim to put into pkgsrc-wip soon as it boots my BSD 
boxes also.

Has dnsmasq been considered? It's very compact, feature rich but GPL.

Thanks

Roy