On Tue, Oct 08, 2002 at 10:54:03AM -0700, Tim Howe wrote: > I don't think it would be that hard to check the status of an > interface's link periodically and if found to be up, then run a dhcp > client. This could probably be done with a 3 line script and cron. > Also, if my unix workstation automatically assumed that it should run > dhclient on an interface as soon as a cable was plugged in, I would > immediatly be on a quest to purge this tendancy from the source code. > Surely this is a behavior that would be most hated among The Capable. I > think you spoke very quickly when you dubbed this an intelligent action. > Windows can get away with it because 99% of windows users use it as a > simple node on a network and wouldn't know how to configure it > themselves. Lunix/BSD/Unix is used for way more than that, so must > never attempt to mold itself to one paradigm.
Oh no, it is quite intelligent! Consider for a moment that this behavior
only happens when you have explicitly configured the interface for DHCP.
In that case, the current behavior is to attempt to negotiate a DHCP
connection at boot time. If there is a cable connected, that's fine. If
not, you'll be waiting for the DHCP client to time-out.
For DHCP-configured machines, probing for a server on cable connection is
definitely a good idea. If you're set up for static, it would definitely
be an unhelpful annoyance.
--
Joseph Carter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> My opinions are always right
"Actually, the only distribution of Linux I've ever used that passed the
rootshell test out of the box (hit rootshell at the time the dist is
released and see if you can break the OS with scripts from there) is
Debian."
-- seen on the Linux security-audit mailing list
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