Subject: [alpine-devel] asking the right questions in setup-interfaces

From: Natanael Copa <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2012 22:19:41 +0100

Hi,

I am looking into setting up bridges, bonding and vlans from
setup-interfaces (called from setup-alpine) and I wonder how the
questions should be asked.

I would like to optimize the number of questions asked, so we ask as
few questions as possible. For example, instead of asking:

Do you want create any bridge interfaces (y/n) [n] y
Enter the name of the bridge: br0
...

We could do:
Enter bridge interface to create (or 'none') [none] br0
...

And we have one less question asked.

Now, since most people will not need bridge interfaces, I would prefer
not ask that question at all, but instead do something like:

(note that the br0 is not initially listed, its a "hidden" feature that
the help '?' could explain about. We should also allow bridge[0-9] as
magic word for bridges)

Available interfaces are: eth0 eth1
What interface do you want configure? (or 'done' or '?') [eth0] br0
Available interfaces are: eth0 eth1
What interface(s) do you want add to br0? (or 'all') [none] eth0
Available interfaces are: eth1
What interface(s) do you want add to br0? (or 'done') [done] done
Ip address for br0? (or 'dhcp' or '?') [dhcp] dhcp
Available interfaces are: eth1
What interface do you want configure? (or 'done' or '?') [eth1] done
...

We could also allow br[0-9] and bridge[0-9] when asking for ip address
Available interfaces are: eth0 eth1
What interface do you want configure? (or 'done' or '?') [eth0] eth0
Ip address for eth0? (or 'dhcp' or '?') [dhcp] br0
Available interfaces are: br0 eth1
What interface do you want configure? (or 'done' or '?') [br0] br0
(should we ask about adding more interfaces here?)
Ip address for br0? (or 'dhcp' or '?') [dhcp] dhcp
...

Simlar applies to bonding interfaces and vlans.

What do you think?

Any better ideas?

-nc

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From: Jeff Bilyk <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2012 22:36:49 -0400

Hi,

> Simlar applies to bonding interfaces and vlans.

I like the simpler questions, and adding it in to the initial question
about network interfaces seems logical.

> Any better ideas?

Nope :).

-- 
Jeff

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