a small comment on isc dhcp

[Tim Peiffer]

Luc,

I wrote the '-t' option into dhcpd many years ago because too many 
people had their fingers into the running config and it was easy to 
botch..  The thought on how to use '-t' goes as follows:

1) keep known working configurations pristine.
2) build or copy configurations into a working scratchpad space
3) verify syntactically correct in the scratchpad space.
    a) veto if bad.
    b) copy good scratch configuration into pristine space.
4) stop/start dhcpd

Your note tends to indicate that  dhcpd should be more forgiving of 
mistakes.. without '-t' option I might agree with you.  On the contrary, 
with '-t' you should change your configuration process and move along 
with best practices rather than continuing with the 'old way'.

Regards,
Tim Peiffer
University of Minnesota

Luc T. wrote:
> I do think it is more important to start the service even with minor mistakes than just stucking there (For example, if duplicate host names are found, rather than stucking there, one of them can be chosen and others ignored). Maybe the last good configuration can be used as well. This will bring convenience for administration, specially if there are a couple of persons who all have the right to change the configuration files and stop start the service. 
>    
>   It is understood that test option can be used to check the syntax.What if one is modifying the files, and the other is restarting the service (assuming that the first person began modifying configuration files right after the other has finished check syntax)?
> Simon Hobson <dhcp1 at thehobsons.co.uk> wrote:
>   Luc T. wrote:
>   
>> one big problem of isc dhcp is that if you made a small syntax error 
>> in the dpchd.conf or any include files, the service cannot restart.
>>     
>
> You'd prefer it if it started with a corrupt config ? What would you 
> have it do, ignore anything that wasn't syntactically correct - could 
> have 'interesting' effects on your network !
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>   Luc
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