Re: DHCP vs RARP?

[Mouse <mouse%Rodents-Montreal.ORG@localhost>]

>> Replicating most of the declaration just to make up for deficiencies
>> in the parser is...aesthetically offensive,
> It isn't a deficiency, it is a design choice, in general it is much
> more flexible.

Eh.  Explain how it's more flexible to support only style XYZ as
compared to supporting both style XYZ and style ABC?

>> (It's also annoyingly tedious to add a new address to.)
> It actually isn't, it is easier - the way you'r trying to do it you
> need to add a new line into the middle of the file (and pick the
> right place to do it, in case you have several different groups like
> this).

> The way it is, all you do is

>   printf 'host foo%d { hardware ethernet %s; fixed-address 1.2.3.4; }' \
> 	$((++foocount)) "${macaddr+" >> config-file

> which is much simpler

...??  Simpler, to have to compute the correct value of foocount and
figure out which template's other lines to insert into the foo%d
clause?  (You're oversimplifying away the need for at least another
line or two in each clause.  Maybe _your_ setup doesn't need them, but
mine is heterogenous enough that it does.)

I'd sooner throw a preprocessing step (m4, awk, whatever) around it.

>> If I end up doing much that depends on DHCP-assigned diskless
>> booting addresses, I'll probably fix this at some point.
> Don't.

Why not?  Why should I not change software to work in better ways for
the environment it's being used in?

It's not as if you have to use the result.  (And, even if you did, I
don't propose to break support for the style you prefer.)  It's
reasonably likely upstream wouldn't even take the changes back; I'd be
doing this to the DHCP that comes with 5.2, not ISC's latest.  (I had a
look at their latest and the activation energy for my adopting it is
_way_ too high; it's drunk the ./configure koolaid.  So has the one in
/usr/src/dist, but that configure script (a) is fixed and already
vetted and (b) is known to work with the system it comes with.)

> I used to dislike this kind of config when I first encountered it (in
> some ancient bind perhaps) but with more experience I realise just
> how much better it is than the old way.

For your tradeoffs, perhaps, it is.

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