[RFC] drop nm-iface-helper (--configure-and-quit=yes) from NetworkManager?

[Thomas Haller <thaller redhat com>]

Hi,


Since NM 1.0, NM supports a

  [main]
  configure-and-quit=yes

option in NetworkManager.conf (see also the manual page [1]).

[1] https://networkmanager.dev/docs/api/1.32.10/NetworkManager.conf.html


This tells NM to quit once the interfaces are configured. That works
for static addresses by NM simply exiting and leaving the interface
configured. To support DHCP/autoconf6, NM starts /usr/libexec/nm-iface-
helper, which is an per-interface IP manager process.

The idea is to avoid a "heavy daemon" while still honoring
NetworkManager configuration. Which may be fine for static addressing,
but once you start nm-iface-helper it's not clear why that is so much
more lightweight to be worth it. IMO, the solution for "NM is too
heavy" is not "disable NM and run some nm-iface-helper instead", the
solution is "improve resouce consumption of NM".

Sidenote: "configure-and-quit=yes" is not the same as "configure-and-
quit=initrd", which has a different use and a real purpose.

I think this mode does not work well and makes little sense. The
biggest downsides is that you loose a lot in this mode. No more Wi-Fi,
VPN, bluetooth. No more D-Bus API of NM. For this mode there are
already sensible alternatives (a bash script, dhclient or systemd-
networkd).

I propose to drop "configure-and-quit=yes" mode.

Dropping nm-iface-helper is a change in behavior, but maybe not too
bad. NM would simply keep running. A user who had configure-and-quit
mode working would still have a working setup (arguably, working
"better").

I don't recall *any* bug reports for nm-iface-helper. I suspect nobody
is using this. Is somebody using it? Would you miss it?


Opinions?



best
Thomas