Bug 1817265

Summary:	[spec] Disable libiptc support in RHEL8
Product:	Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8	Reporter:	Phil Sutter <psutter>
Component:	systemd	Assignee:	Jan Macku <jamacku>
Status:	CLOSED ERRATA	QA Contact:	Frantisek Sumsal <fsumsal>
Severity:	unspecified	Docs Contact:
Priority:	urgent
Version:	8.3	CC:	dcbw, dtardon, egarver, fkrska, fwestpha, jamacku, mpoole, msekleta, snemec, systemd-maint-list, todoleza
Target Milestone:	rc	Keywords:	Triaged, ZStream
Target Release:	8.3
Hardware:	Unspecified
OS:	Unspecified
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version:	systemd-239-48.el8	Doc Type:	If docs needed, set a value
Doc Text:		Story Points:	---
Clone Of:
Clones:	1934638 1940893 2064592 (view as bug list)		Environment:
Last Closed:	2021-11-09 19:54:49 UTC	Type:	Bug
Regression:	---	Mount Type:	---
Documentation:	---	CRM:
Verified Versions:		Category:	---
oVirt Team:	---	RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team:	---	Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:
Bug Depends On:
Bug Blocks:	2064592

Description Phil Sutter 2020-03-26 00:53:58 UTC

For RHEL8, we decided to go with iptables-nft as a full replacement to legacy
iptables. Sadly, doing so we forgot about libiptc. This means that applications
creating rules via libiptc add them to legacy xtables hooks in kernel which are
not manageable from iptables-nft and probably don't work as expected, either.

I searched systemd package dist-git history and it seems libiptc support was
never explicitly enabled but came in via a rebase. Is this correct or do you
have a use-case requiring libiptc (and the associated firewalling
functionality)?

Considering the next steps, did you consider interfacing with firewalld once?

Comment 1 David Tardon 2020-03-26 12:35:46 UTC

It seems libiptc is only needed for networkd, which we disable, and systemd-nspawn, where it's used to implement the --port= option. This is no change compared to RHEL7, so I think libiptc should continue to be disabled.

Comment 2 Phil Sutter 2020-03-27 12:43:15 UTC

Hi David,

(In reply to David Tardon from comment #1)
> It seems libiptc is only needed for networkd, which we disable, and
> systemd-nspawn, where it's used to implement the --port= option. This is no
> change compared to RHEL7, so I think libiptc should continue to be disabled.

Thanks for the clarification. I don't comprehend what you mean with "continue
to be disabled", though: In RHEL8.2, systemd is configured with
'-Dlibiptc=true'. Are you suggesting to set that to 'false'? I would welcome
that change but can we tell if someone would miss the functionality?

Cheers, Phil

Comment 3 David Tardon 2020-03-29 15:06:33 UTC

I meant "continue to be disabled, as it was in RHEL-7". Or, in other words, to disable it again starting with RHEL-8.3.

Comment 4 Phil Sutter 2020-03-30 15:04:30 UTC

Hi David,

(In reply to David Tardon from comment #3)
> I meant "continue to be disabled, as it was in RHEL-7". Or, in other words,
> to disable it again starting with RHEL-8.3.

Ah, I wasn't aware it is disabled in RHEL7. Hereby updating the ticket to emphasize the request.

Thanks, Phil

Comment 6 Phil Sutter 2021-02-16 12:46:22 UTC

What's the status here please? I would like to eliminate libiptc from RHEL9 entirely. Are you still positive about removing said dependency from systemd?

Comment 8 David Tardon 2021-02-18 11:50:01 UTC

(In reply to Phil Sutter from comment #6)
> What's the status here please? I would like to eliminate libiptc from RHEL9
> entirely. Are you still positive about removing said dependency from systemd?

I don't think anything has changed since comment 1, so I'm pretty sure we are. In addition, current upstream code already uses nftables by default, with iptables just as a fallback, so libiptc will be even less needed in near future than it is now...

Comment 13 errata-xmlrpc 2021-11-09 19:54:49 UTC

Since the problem described in this bug report should be
resolved in a recent advisory, it has been closed with a
resolution of ERRATA.

For information on the advisory (systemd bug fix and enhancement update), and where to find the updated
files, follow the link below.

If the solution does not work for you, open a new bug report.

https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHBA-2021:4469