Rowland Penny via Dng wrote:
> That is just a bandaid on something broken. If you have to stop
> something being changed, then there must be something trying to change
> it. You need to find what that 'something' is and stop that changing
> resolv.conf

+1! But I completely understand those that chatr it immutable and
then get on with their lives. Any port in a storm. What I would
rather see is the software distribution address the problem more
globally so that people wouldn't need to stumble through it unaided.

Commentary: We are in the age of mobile devices. By default
everything assumes that it is a mobile device. Even in large
enterprise corporations IT groups are pushing for servers to be
configured as mobile devices. Because as a practical matter you can't
configure mobile devices statically. That would make no sense. But
if you want everything to be configured exactly the same then it is
*possible*, even if not desirable IMNHO, to configure static servers
as a mobile device. Maybe. And that is the rub.

    <================================================================>
    Static    ...every possible configuration in between...    Dynamic

I think most of the problems are near the Dynamic side where things
are messy. But not all of the way to the side. That's simple. But
it is in that operating region near the Dynamic side but not fully
there that things are problematic.

On the Static side things are simple. IP address, gateway router,
nameservers, domain search path, ntp servers, and nothing ever changes
again.

On the Dynamic side things are more complex. It's like being in a
relationship. There is the client wanting an IP address and there is
the DHCP server coordinating one. Both sides have to negotiate for a
happy relationship. And it is more than just an IP address and
gateway. It's also DNS nameservers, default domain search path, ntp
servers, other things. It is just like with people relationships.
"It's complicated!"

I want my mobile devices to ignore the offered domain search path and
always use the one I want it to use. Even though I am on random
networks. Where possible I want my mobile devices to my choice of
nameserver services in order to get my private domain names. These
things need to be MERGED together in order to work properly. It's
messy for me to do for myself where I know what I want. It's very
hard for others to do for others where no one can agree on what they
want.

Some Details:

I am using isc-dhcp-client and the configuration there to always fix
my domain search path as I wish is to append a line like this to the
end of the /etc/dhcp/dhclient.conf file. (man 5 dhclient.conf)

    supersede domain-search "proulx.com";

And then the dhclient process will always set it as I have configured
and will ignore the server side offer.

I'll stop with that tidbit. Because there are multiple dhcp clients
in use. Everyone has a favorite. Because there are many ideas on
DNS. Install a local caching nameserver or use the DHCP provided one?
What about NTP servers? Everyone has a different idea. On my mobile
devices I install unbound and dynamically configure it depending upon
the network upon which I am connected.

Because of the many various implementations and the more plentiful
number of opinions on how things should be done it is really difficult
to fully automate the near-dynamic side of the scale.

Bob