Re: DHCP server in base

On Fri, Sep 10, 2010 at 10:33:11PM -0700, Kevin Oberman wrote:
> > Date: Fri, 10 Sep 2010 17:33:22 -0700
> > From: Doug Barton <dougb_at_FreeBSD.org>
> > Sender: owner-freebsd-current_at_freebsd.org
> > 
> > On 9/10/2010 1:48 PM, Aleksandr Rybalko wrote:
> > >
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > another argument about hostapd :) if have access point we must have
> > > way to assign IP for AP clients.
> > 
> > To start with, your assumption is wrong. DHCPd is not *actually* a 
> > requirement, although I admit that practically it is.
> 
> It is not. I routinely use hostapd for access for my iPod. I use
> static addressing and don't run dhcpd.

With IPv6 you can additionally use stateles autoconfiguration.
The requirement for autoconfiguration with DHCP is a problem of IPv4,
which won't have a long future for mainstream purspose anymore.
Nevertheless there must be a decision about base and not-base and this
point will always be questionable to some.
I'm also not very strict about bind - it is handy to have dig available,
but at the same time it is handy to have whois available, but the
whois in base isn't good enough anymore for most cases.
A DHCP client however can be required for initial network configuration
to retrieve further packages.
dig and co can be handy to debug initial network problems, but there
are other tools in base for those problems.
But to repeat a point which was already made:
Someone who can configure a DHCP server really shouldn't have problems
to install a package - installing packages or ports is so basic for
an operationg system that this is likely one of the first things to
learn.
Additionally there are ready made systems based on FreeBSD for special
purpose, which probably come with the required tools.

> > > Since this device is router I must be
> > > able to serve DHCP. And current implementation of dhcpclient, that we
> > > have, is same isc-dhcp, and I replace system dhcpclient with ports
> > > one+dhcpd but with small patch that put basic dhcp utils onto
> > > libdhcp.so.

DHCP servers don't have to live on routers and there are many reasons
to have them installed somewhere else.

-- 
B.Walter <bernd_at_bwct.de> http://www.bwct.de
Modbus/TCP Ethernet I/O Baugruppen, ARM basierte FreeBSD Rechner uvm.