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https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/NetworkManager/NetworkManager
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4e0f1b16b9
Add a new way how NMSetting subclasses can be implemented. Currently, most NMSetting implementations realize all their properties via GObject properties. That has some downsides: - the biggest one, is the large effort to add new properties. Most of them are implemented on a one-by-one basis and they come with additional API (like native getter functions). It makes it cumbersome to add more properties. - for certain properties, it's hard to encode them entirely in a GObject property. That results in unusable API like NM_SETTING_IP_CONFIG_ADDRESSES, NM_SETTING_BOND_OPTIONS, NM_SETTING_USER_DATA. These complex valued properties only exist, because we currently always need GObject properties to even implement simple functionality. For example, nm_setting_duplicate() is entirely implemented via nm_setting_enumerate_values(), which can only iterate GObject properies. There is no reason why this is necessary. Note also how nmcli badly handles bond options and VPN data. That is only a shortcoming of nmcli and wouldn't need to be that way. But it happend, because we didn't keep an open mind that settings might be more than just accessing GObject properties. - a major point of NMSetting is to convert to/from a GVariant from the D-Bus API. As NMSetting needs to squeeze all values into the static GObject structure, there is no place to encode invalid or unknown properties. Optimally, _nm_setting_new_from_dbus() does not loose any information and a subsequent _nm_setting_to_dbus() can restore the original variant. That is interesting, because we want that an older libnm client can talk to a newer NetworkManager version. The client needs to handle unknown properties gracefully to stay forward compatible. However, it also should not just drop the properties on the floor. Note however, optimally we want that nm_setting_verify() still can reject settings that have such unknown/invalid values. So, it should be possible to create an NMSetting instance without error or loosing information. But verify() should be usable to identify such settings as invalid. They also have a few upsides. - libnm is heavily oriented around GObject. So, we generate our nm-settings manual based on the gtk-doc. Note however, how we fail to generate a useful manual for bond.options. Also note, that there is no reason we couldn't generate great documentation, even if the properties are not GObject properties. - GObject properties do give some functionality like meta-data, data binding and notification. However, the meta-data is not sufficient on its own. Note how keyfile and nmcli need extensive descriptor tables on top of GObject properties, to make this useful. Note how GObject notifications for NMSetting instances are usually not useful, aside for data binding like nmtui does. Also note how NMSettingBond already follows a different paradigm than using GObject properties. Nowdays, NMSettingBond is considered a mistake (related bug rh#1032808). Many ideas of NMSettingBond are flawed, like exposing an inferiour API that reduces everything to a string hash. Also, it only implemented the options hash inside NMSettingBond. That means, if we would consider this a good style, we would have to duplicate this approach in each new setting implementation. Add a new style to track data for NMSetting subclasses. It keeps an internal hash table with all GVariant properies. Also, the functionality is hooked into NMSetting base class, so all future subclasses that follow this way, can benefit from this. This approach has a few similiarties with NMSettingBond, but avoids its flaws. With this, we also no longer need GObject properties (if we would also implement generating useful documentation based on non-gkt-doc). They may be added as accessors if they are useful, but there is no need for them. Also, handling the properties as a hash of variants invites for a more generic approach when handling them. While we still could add accessors that operate on a one-by-one bases, this leads to a more generic usage where we apply common functionality to a set of properties. Also, this is for the moment entirely internal and an implementation detail. It's entirely up to the NMSetting subclass to make use of this new style. Also, there are little hooks for the subclass available. If they turn out to be necessary, they might be added. However, for the moment, the functionality is restricted to what is useful and necessary. |
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| clients | ||
| contrib | ||
| data | ||
| dispatcher | ||
| docs | ||
| examples | ||
| introspection | ||
| libnm | ||
| libnm-core | ||
| libnm-glib | ||
| libnm-util | ||
| m4 | ||
| man | ||
| po | ||
| shared | ||
| src | ||
| tools | ||
| vapi | ||
| .dir-locals.el | ||
| .gitignore | ||
| .mailmap | ||
| .travis.yml | ||
| AUTHORS | ||
| autogen.sh | ||
| ChangeLog | ||
| config-extra.h.meson | ||
| config.h.meson | ||
| configure.ac | ||
| CONTRIBUTING | ||
| COPYING | ||
| linker-script-binary.ver | ||
| linker-script-devices.ver | ||
| linker-script-settings.ver | ||
| MAINTAINERS | ||
| Makefile.am | ||
| Makefile.examples | ||
| Makefile.glib | ||
| Makefile.vapigen | ||
| meson.build | ||
| meson_options.txt | ||
| meson_post_install.py | ||
| NetworkManager.pc.in | ||
| NEWS | ||
| README | ||
| TODO | ||
| valgrind.suppressions | ||
| zanata.xml | ||
****************** 2008-12-11: NetworkManager core daemon has moved to git.freedesktop.org! git clone git://git.freedesktop.org/git/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.git ****************** Networking that Just Works -------------------------- NetworkManager attempts to keep an active network connection available at all times. The point of NetworkManager is to make networking configuration and setup as painless and automatic as possible. NetworkManager is intended to replace default route, replace other routes, set IP addresses, and in general configure networking as NM sees fit (with the possibility of manual override as necessary). In effect, the goal of NetworkManager is to make networking Just Work with a minimum of user hassle, but still allow customization and a high level of manual network control. If you have special needs, we'd like to hear about them, but understand that NetworkManager is not intended for every use-case. NetworkManager will attempt to keep every network device in the system up and active, as long as the device is available for use (has a cable plugged in, the killswitch isn't turned on, etc). Network connections can be set to 'autoconnect', meaning that NetworkManager will make that connection active whenever it and the hardware is available. "Settings services" store lists of user- or administrator-defined "connections", which contain all the settings and parameters required to connect to a specific network. NetworkManager will _never_ activate a connection that is not in this list, or that the user has not directed NetworkManager to connect to. How it works: The NetworkManager daemon runs as a privileged service (since it must access and control hardware), but provides a D-Bus interface on the system bus to allow for fine-grained control of networking. NetworkManager does not store connections or settings, it is only the mechanism by which those connections are selected and activated. To store pre-defined network connections, two separate services, the "system settings service" and the "user settings service" store connection information and provide these to NetworkManager, also via D-Bus. Each settings service can determine how and where it persistently stores the connection information; for example, the GNOME applet stores its configuration in GConf, and the system settings service stores its config in distro-specific formats, or in a distro- agnostic format, depending on user/administrator preference. A variety of other system services are used by NetworkManager to provide network functionality: wpa_supplicant for wireless connections and 802.1x wired connections, pppd for PPP and mobile broadband connections, DHCP clients for dynamic IP addressing, dnsmasq for proxy nameserver and DHCP server functionality for internet connection sharing, and avahi-autoipd for IPv4 link-local addresses. Most communication with these daemons occurs, again, via D-Bus. Why doesn't my network Just Work? Driver problems are the #1 cause of why NetworkManager sometimes fails to connect to wireless networks. Often, the driver simply doesn't behave in a consistent manner, or is just plain buggy. NetworkManager supports _only_ those drivers that are shipped with the upstream Linux kernel, because only those drivers can be easily fixed and debugged. ndiswrapper, vendor binary drivers, or other out-of-tree drivers may or may not work well with NetworkManager, precisely because they have not been vetted and improved by the open-source community, and because problems in these drivers usually cannot be fixed. Sometimes, command-line tools like 'iwconfig' will work, but NetworkManager will fail. This is again often due to buggy drivers, because these drivers simply aren't expecting the dynamic requests that NetworkManager and wpa_supplicant make. Driver bugs should be filed in the bug tracker of the distribution being run, since often distributions customize their kernel and drivers. Sometimes, it really is NetworkManager's fault. If you think that's the case, please file a bug at http://bugzilla.gnome.org and choose the NetworkManager component. Attaching the output of /var/log/messages or /var/log/daemon.log (wherever your distribution directs syslog's 'daemon' facility output) is often very helpful, and (if you can get) a working wpa_supplicant config file helps enormously.