Bug#646860: netcfg: do not place network and broadcast lines in /etc/network/interfaces

[Oskar Liljeblad]

Package: netcfg
Severity: wishlist

Hello, it's 2011 and not 1984. Broadcast and network addresses are standardized 
today.
'network' and 'broadcast' lines do not need to be written to 
/etc/network/interfaces
any more. They are at best redundant, and at worst confusing users. ifconfig
calculates broadcast and network addresses correctly so they can be removed
safely from the config. Attached is a patch against netcfg-1.59.

Regards,

Oskar Liljeblad

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 6.0.3
  APT prefers stable
  APT policy: (500, 'stable'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.39.4 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=POSIX, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash

diff -u -p static.c.v0 static.c
--- static.c.v0	2011-10-27 21:55:11.000000000 +0200
+++ static.c	2011-10-27 21:59:00.000000000 +0200
@@ -12,7 +12,6 @@
 
 struct in_addr old_ipaddress = { 0 };
 struct in_addr network = { 0 };
-struct in_addr broadcast = { 0 };
 struct in_addr netmask = { 0 };
 struct in_addr pointopoint = { 0 };
 
@@ -107,7 +106,6 @@ int netcfg_get_netmask(struct debconfcli
         netmask.s_addr != old_netmask.s_addr
         ) {
         network.s_addr = ipaddress.s_addr & netmask.s_addr;
-        broadcast.s_addr = (network.s_addr | ~netmask.s_addr);
 
         /* Preseed gateway */
         gateway.s_addr = ipaddress.s_addr & netmask.s_addr;
@@ -189,8 +187,6 @@ static int netcfg_write_static(char *dom
         fprintf(fp, "iface %s inet static\n", interface);
         fprintf(fp, "\taddress %s\n", inet_ntop (AF_INET, &ipaddress, ptr1, sizeof (ptr1)));
         fprintf(fp, "\tnetmask %s\n", inet_ntop (AF_INET, &netmask, ptr1, sizeof (ptr1)));
-        fprintf(fp, "\tnetwork %s\n", inet_ntop (AF_INET, &network, ptr1, sizeof (ptr1)));
-        fprintf(fp, "\tbroadcast %s\n", inet_ntop (AF_INET, &broadcast, ptr1, sizeof (ptr1)));
         if (gateway.s_addr)
             fprintf(fp, "\tgateway %s\n", inet_ntop (AF_INET, &gateway, ptr1, sizeof (ptr1)));
         if (pointopoint.s_addr)
@@ -311,10 +307,6 @@ int netcfg_activate_static(struct debcon
     di_snprintfcat(buf, sizeof(buf), " netmask %s",
                    inet_ntop (AF_INET, &netmask, ptr1, sizeof (ptr1)));
 
-    /* avoid using a third buffer */
-    di_snprintfcat(buf, sizeof(buf), " broadcast %s",
-                   inet_ntop (AF_INET, &broadcast, ptr1, sizeof (ptr1)));
-    
     di_info("executing: %s", buf);
     rv |= di_exec_shell_log(buf);
     
@@ -350,11 +342,6 @@ int netcfg_activate_static(struct debcon
              inet_ntop (AF_INET, &ipaddress, ptr1, sizeof (ptr1)),
              masksize);
 
-    /* avoid using a second buffer */
-    di_snprintfcat(buf, sizeof(buf), "broadcast %s dev %s",
-                   inet_ntop (AF_INET, &broadcast, ptr1, sizeof (ptr1)),
-                   interface);
-
     if (pointopoint.s_addr)
         di_snprintfcat(buf, sizeof(buf), " peer %s",
                        inet_ntop (AF_INET, &pointopoint, ptr1, sizeof (ptr1)));
@@ -396,7 +383,7 @@ int netcfg_get_static(struct debconfclie
            GET_DOMAIN, QUIT }
     state = GET_IPADDRESS;
 
-    ipaddress.s_addr = network.s_addr = broadcast.s_addr = netmask.s_addr = gateway.s_addr = pointopoint.s_addr =
+    ipaddress.s_addr = network.s_addr = netmask.s_addr = gateway.s_addr = pointopoint.s_addr =
         0;
 
     debconf_metaget(client,  "netcfg/internal-none", "description");