[Dnsmasq-discuss] rarp functionality in dnsmasq?

[Simon Kelley]

Jima wrote:
> Simon (and everyone),
> 
>  I know you've previously answered this question to the negative[1], but
> I was wondering if the situation might be different at all now that
> dnsmasq has a tftp server built-in.  Might your arm possibly be twisted
> to add rarp to dnsmasq?  I only ask because that's the only remaining
> outside component needed to netboot SPARC systems.
>  If not, I understand; you don't want to make dnsmasq bloatware (and I'm
> honestly unaware of how much rarp would add to the binary).

I looked at this again, but I think the same thing applies for the
following reasons.

* RARP is purely an IP<->MAC association, there's no concept of a
hostname, so no advantage to integration with the DHCP server.

* RARP doesn't supply "where to get my netboot" information, so there's
not even the minimal advantage of integrating the DHCP server with the
TFTP server.

* RARP is very simple, so it shouldn't need much code, but it's not a
UDP/IP level protocol, it's ethernet level. This means that it can't use
much of the existing server infrastucture, the way the TFTP server
integrated into dnsmasq can. It also means that to implement RARP needs
raw (non-IP) net access. Doing that is a pain, because it's
non-portable. The code is different in Linux and *BSD. I've worked hard
in the past to remove raw net access from dnsmasq, I'd rather not add it
back.

Sorry,

Cheers,

Simon.


> 
>  As always, thanks for the great work.  dnsmasq 2.37 will be part of
> Fedora 7, and the mirrors should soon pick it up for Fedora Extras 5 and
> 6. :-)
> 
>      Jima
> 
> 1.
> http://lists.thekelleys.org.uk/pipermail/dnsmasq-discuss/2005q1/000106.html
> 
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