Bug 126637

Why are reporting a Redhat linux 9 "bug" to fedora core 2? I don't
know about dhcpclient but for dhclient there is a configuration file
called dhclient.conf where you can adjust the behaviour of dhclient to
your needs. Maybe the supersede / prepend statements in combination
with domain-name-servers could keep dhclient from or restore the
values for your name servers. Maybe you could configure the DHCP
server not to provide values the DHCP client does not need. So, is
this a bug at all?

I'm reporting the bug against Fedora core 2 because I didn't find
"Redhat Linux" in the list of options that bugzilla offered. I thought
Fedora probably inherited the bug, so filed against that. The other
close option was "Redhat Enterprise Linux" - I believe that's not 
a free version anymore - so decided against filing on that.

I've checked the dhcpclient.conf man page. Notice that my dhcp client
needs the nameserver information from the router the first time. But
on lease renewal, it doesn't need that information. There doesn't seem
to be a way to specify this. I believe the default behavior of
dhcpclient should be such as to not overwrite /etc/resolv.conf if 
the lease renewal doesn't change any of the earlier parameters.

I don't think that dhcpclient overwrites resolv.conf. In the case of
dhclient it's dhclient-script that updates resolv.conf. The man page
for dhclient-script states:

>This  script  is  not meant to be customized by the end user.  If
local >customizations are needed, they should be possible using the
enter and >exit hooks  provided (see HOOKS for details).   These hooks
will allow       >the user to override the default behaviour of the
client in creating  a       >/etc/resolv.conf file.

Hope this helps.

I can certainly put a shell script in /etc/dhclient-enter-hooks that
overrides the default behavior of overwriting /etc/resolv.conf.
However, the reason I've filed this bug is to help Linux become
more usable towards an ordinary user who doesn't know how to 
write shell scripts and/or such deep system level details. 
It'll be nice if such common ways to change the behavior of the
dhclient-script are already provided.

The situation u describe is mentioned in the man page of
dhclient-script as well, so maybe u can either help yourself using
your skills or wait for a new version of dhclient-script. There is no
point in filing this bug which is even mentioned in the man page, is
there?

dhclient-script

BUGS

If more than one interface is being used, there's no obvious way to
void clashes between server-supplied configuration parameters - for
example, the stock dhclient-script rewrites /etc/resolv.conf. If more
than one interface is being configured, /etc/resolv.conf will be
repeatedly initialized to the values provided by one server, and then
the other. Assuming the information provided by both servers is valid,
this shouldn't cause any real problems, but it could be confusing.

It might be true that the man page of dhclient-script mentions the
bug. However, unless someone reports problems, it is not going to be
fixed at a high priority. In addition, the man page is biased in
thinking thatit won't "cause any real problems". The issue is, for
people using VPN over a dhcp interface, this is a real problem. Many
more people are likely to be using VPN over an interface than two
separate interfaces.I don't think the man page recognizes that.

I'll appreciate if this bug can be left open so it is fixed at a
higher priority than otherwise. Please recognize that it is bugs such
as these that prevent Linux from becoming more accessible to non-geeks.

The reason why I spent my time with your problem was that you gave the
impression of being lost:

>So everytime my Redhat linux box renews its dhcp lease, I have to 
>manually edit /etc/resolv.conf

That's why I mentioned how you can configure dhclient-script to match
your needs. Sorry for not having realized immediately that you were an
expert trying to save the non geeks.

With dhclient-3.0.1-+ (current version) you can add this line to
/etc/dhclient-${interface}.conf
(eg. /etc/dhclient-eth0.conf if the interface being configured 
 with DHCP is eth0) :
'
  prepend domain-name-servers ns1.myvpn.com ns2.myvpn.com;
'
This will add the nameservers ns1.myvpn.com ns2.myvpn.com to the 
beginning of the list of nameservers retrieved from DHCP - or 
'
  append domain-name-servers ns1.myvpn.com ns2.myvpn.com;
'
to add them at the end; or
'
  supersede domain-name-servers ns1.myvpn.com ns2.myvpn.com;
'
to replace the nameservers supplied by DHCP server entirely.
I hope this helps.

An advisory has been issued which should help the problem
described in this bug report. This report is therefore being
closed with a resolution of ERRATA. For more information
on the solution and/or where to find the updated files,
please follow the link below. You may reopen this bug report
if the solution does not work for you.

http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHBA-2004-566.html