Bug 2048853
| Summary: | nm-settings-keyfile confusion | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Product: | Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 | Reporter: | Patrick Donnelly <pdonnell> |
| Component: | NetworkManager | Assignee: | NetworkManager Development Team <nm-team> |
| Status: | CLOSED MIGRATED | QA Contact: | Vladimir Benes <vbenes> |
| Severity: | medium | Docs Contact: | |
| Priority: | medium | ||
| Version: | 9.0 | CC: | bgalvani, desktop-qa-list, lrintel, mmuehlfe, rkhan, sfaye, sukulkar, thaller, till |
| Target Milestone: | rc | Keywords: | MigratedToJIRA, Triaged |
| Target Release: | --- | ||
| Hardware: | Unspecified | ||
| OS: | Unspecified | ||
| Whiteboard: | |||
| Fixed In Version: | Doc Type: | If docs needed, set a value | |
| Doc Text: | Story Points: | --- | |
| Clone Of: | Environment: | ||
| Last Closed: | 2023-08-17 09:58:53 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: | |||
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Description
Patrick Donnelly
2022-02-01 01:14:11 UTC
> Thomas, if the man pages are wrong/incomplete, should we change this to a NetworkManager bug? IMO this bug is mostly about `man nm-settings-keyfile`. We could reassign to NetworkManager. That manual page is pretty bad, and (no doubt) should be improved. > I think the documentation should be clear on whether customers should try to "get ahead of the curve" by using keyfile format **today** in RHEL 8. If they should, then the RHEL docs should recommend I think we should not recommend the user to do work, unless upgrading to the next major version. Even on RHEL9, ifcfg files will work just fine. Likewise, on RHEL8, keyfile will work fine. > If I remember correctly, RHEL 8.5 added support for keyfiles, but it's not planned to change the default. keyfile are supported for a very long time already. The difference is that before RHEL9, the default in NetworkManager.conf is `[main].plugins=ifcfg-rh,keyfile`, while on RHEL9 it will be `[main].plugins=keyfile,ifcfg-rh`. Otherwise, RHEL8 and RHEL9 have a very(!) similar NetworkManager. The user could always have configured the plugin explicitly, and for NetworkManager either is fine (note that tools like anaconda (on RHEL8), /usr/lib/udev/rename_device might expect to find ifcfg-files, so changing the backend could have other effects). I think the Guide should not go too much into detail about the actual format of keyfiles. For the individual keys, it should refer to `man nm-settings-keyfile` (which needs improvement). The Guide can however explain the larger picture, like how to edit a file. For example, inform to take care of the file owner/permissions, how to reload after modification (`nmcli connection load|reload`), that ifcfg files are also parsed by initscripts' /usr/lib/udev/rename_device (and migrating to keyfile requires to user to rename files via .link files or udev rules). Etc. Marc, let's reassign or clone? --- Btw, using nmcli seems much more convenient. I would always recommend that over editing keyfiles. Also, 1.40 will bring an "--offline" option to nmcli, then you can generate/modify keyfile with nmcli (https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/NetworkManager/NetworkManager/-/merge_requests/1183). And 1.38 will bring a `nmcli connection migrate` command to convert from ifcfg to keyfile (online, done by the daemon) (https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/NetworkManager/NetworkManager/-/merge_requests/1146) (In reply to Thomas Haller from comment #5) > I think the Guide should not go too much into detail about the actual format > of keyfiles. For the individual keys, it should refer to `man > nm-settings-keyfile` (which needs improvement). We have an example of a key file in https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/9-beta/html/configuring_and_managing_networking/assembly_manually-creating-networkmanager-profiles-in-key-file-format_configuring-and-managing-networking#con_the-key-file-format-of-networkmanager-profiles_assembly_manually-creating-networkmanager-profiles-in-key-file-format and it refers to nm-settings-keyfile(5) for details. > The Guide can however > explain the larger picture, like how to edit a file. For example, inform to > take care of the file owner/permissions, how to reload after modification > (`nmcli connection load|reload`),... This is covered in: https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/9-beta/html/configuring_and_managing_networking/assembly_manually-creating-networkmanager-profiles-in-key-file-format_configuring-and-managing-networking#proc_creating-a-networkmanager-profile-in-key-file-format_assembly_manually-creating-networkmanager-profiles-in-key-file-format > that ifcfg files are also parsed by > initscripts' /usr/lib/udev/rename_device (and migrating to keyfile requires > to user to rename files via .link files or udev rules). Etc. This is not covered yet. You mentioned that NM 1.38 will introduce a migration tool. Is this info then still relevant. > Marc, let's reassign or clone? Reassigned. > Btw, using nmcli seems much more convenient. I would always recommend that > over editing keyfiles. > Also, 1.40 will bring an "--offline" option to nmcli, then you can > generate/modify keyfile with nmcli > (https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/NetworkManager/NetworkManager/-/ > merge_requests/1183). > And 1.38 will bring a `nmcli connection migrate` command to convert from > ifcfg to keyfile (online, done by the daemon) > (https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/NetworkManager/NetworkManager/-/ > merge_requests/1146) That's a great info. I'll open doc tickets for both topics and add them to the next doc plan (will 1.40 be in 9.1 and/or 8.7)? |