Re: MVP for a DHCP server

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

>>> You configure the DHCP client to [...]
>> You're assuming the DHCP client is configurable.  Sometimes (eg, PXE
>> boot ROMs), they're not.
> PXE does not need a static address.

PXE proper, no.  But (a) that was just one example of an unconfigurable
DHCP client and even with just PXE, (b) how would you address different
machines needing different kernels?

>> Any DHCP server which can't be configured to serve a client-specific
>> IP based on MAC address is a nonstarter for some of my, at least,
>> use cases.  (Which is not, of course, to say that such a feature is
>> necessary in an in-NetBSD-tree DHCP server.  I would like it if it
>> were, but NetBSD long ago stopped caring about what I like.)
> Sadly I do care about what people need.

Why "sadly"?

> But often what they want isn't what they really need.

True.  But trying to tell them you know better than they do what they
need - even, or sometimes even especially, if you're right - is quite
often a recipe for raised hackles and a quick switch to something that
doesn't come across that way.

I am ready to listen to reasons why what I want may not be what I need.
But I am unlikely to listen to anyone who comes across as "I know
better than you do, so you should do it my way".

None of this is to say that that's what you're saying, nor what you
meapn.  But "we don't support this; even if it's what you want, we
think it isn't what you need" in the documentation is liable to come
across that way.

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