Re: integration of nonphysical interfaces in NM

[Dan Williams <dcbw redhat com>]

On Wed, 2005-01-19 at 23:59 -0800, Paul Ionescu wrote:
> Yes, but how will other interested programs learn
> about addition/deletion/changes of such virtual
> connections ?

In the case of VPN, why do other programs _care_?  What good does it do
to advertise VPN connections to other applications at all?  Most
applications care about "getting to the internet", which a VPN does for
you.  In the case of a VPN, routing-table+DNS magic will provide the
ability to use VPN connections for certain blocks of addresses (both IP
and DNS) which is completely transparent to the application anyway, even
without NetworkManager.  The kernel is doing the packet routing here,
not user applications.

Unless a good reason can be given for applications to need to know about
a VPN, I don't really see why its necessary to advertise which ones are
available.  Obviously, there is a need to be able to bring certain VPN
connections up/down, but that's not something that normal applications
need to know.  Only one application really needs to know that, the
application that either (a) allows the user to bring it up him/her-self,
or (b) the application provided by corporate IT to allow its employees
to use the company network.  Mozilla sure doesn't care that a VPN is
there.

Some "virtual" connections do need to be advertised, like IP-over-USB
connections to Sharp Zaurus PDAs for syncing.  Maybe the best way to do
that is pluggable modules or something. Suggestions welcome.

Dan