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Bug 1614726 - improve nm-settings documentation for NetworkManager
Summary: improve nm-settings documentation for NetworkManager
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED ERRATA
Alias: None
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
Classification: Red Hat
Component: NetworkManager
Version: 8.2
Hardware: Unspecified
OS: Unspecified
medium
medium
Target Milestone: rc
: 8.2
Assignee: Thomas Haller
QA Contact: Desktop QE
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks: 1657067 1657069 1755139 1807630 1825061 1847121
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2018-08-10 09:57 UTC by Thomas Haller
Modified: 2020-11-04 01:54 UTC (History)
19 users (show)

Fixed In Version: NetworkManager-1.26.0-0.1.el8
Doc Type: If docs needed, set a value
Doc Text:
Clone Of: 1335409
: 1847121 (view as bug list)
Environment:
Last Closed: 2020-11-04 01:48:18 UTC
Type: Bug
Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:


Attachments (Terms of Use)


Links
System ID Private Priority Status Summary Last Updated
Red Hat Product Errata RHBA-2020:4499 0 None None None 2020-11-04 01:49:06 UTC
freedesktop.org Gitlab NetworkManager/NetworkManager/issues/59 0 None None None 2019-12-23 10:44:16 UTC

Description Thomas Haller 2018-08-10 09:57:53 UTC
`man nm-settings` and related manual pages have several shortcomings, that should be fixed.


The biggest one, is that `man nm-settings` is undecided what it wants to document.

We have

  1) settings in D-Bus API
     - man nm-settings
  2) properties in `nmcli connection`
     - man nmcli
  3) NMSetting API in libnm
     - gtk-doc API
  4) settings in keyfile format
     - man nm-settings-keyfile
  5) settings in ifcfg-rh format
     - man nm-settings-ifcfg-rh

Of course, all these variants are related and often similar. However, there are subtle differences. 

What users are most interested in, is probably information how to use nmcli. However, `man nmcli` only details aliases. For the rest, the user would look at `man nm-settings`.

What is `man nm-settings` supposed to document? The D-Bus API? Or the properties for an nmcli user? We should make up our mind. Currently, there is no distinct manual for (1) and (2).
If we interpret `man nm-settings` as documenting nmcli settings (2), then we should add a `man nm-settings-dbus` for (1).
Otherwise, `man nmcli` should contain the entire list of settings and `man nm-settings` should clearly describe the D-Bus API.


Some differences, and note how our current man pages fail to accurately document them, depending on what you look:

 - ipv4.addresses
 
   - on D-Bus, they are called both "addresses" and "address-data"
   - in nmcli, they are called "ipv4.addresses", if there are multiple 
     addresses, they can be added/removed with +ipv4.addresses/-ipv4.addresses.
   - in keyfile, they are persisted as address1, address2.

 - ethernet.cloned-mac-address

   - on D-Bus, it's both "cloned-mac-address" and "assigned-mac-address"
   - on nmcli and keyfile, there is only "cloned-mac-address"

 - bond.options

   - this is an "artificial" hash in libnm. On D-Bus and keyfile, their content 
     is "unpacked". E.g. we handle "bond.mode", not a nested "options" 
     dictionary.
   - on nmcli, bond.options has a very odd usage, which is inconsistent and 
     inconvenient to use. That would be fixable, but well.
   - either way, the manual does not explain which bond options actually exist
     and which values they can take.

 - user.data

   - in nmcli, this is not yet supported (todo).
   - on keyfile, the user data is unpacked, and stored as "user.$NAME" (good)
   - on D-Bus, the user data is in a nested "user.data" setting (bad).

 - ethtool.* (e.g. "ethtool.feature-lro")

   - on D-Bus, keyfile, and nmcli the usage is nice (how one would expect). 
     However, the options are not implemented as a GObject property, so we 
     currently cannot generate documntation for them. The solution is not to add 
     GObject properties, but to extend the way how we generate documentation.

  - team settings

    - dunno.

  - note that some properties only exist on D-Bus and vice versa. For example,
    ethernet.assigned-mac-address. A nmcli user looking at `man nm-settings` 
    will be confused.


We should make a clear distinction which manual documents which aspect (the 5 aspects above). Second, look at above examples, and ensure they are properly document in each aspect.

Comment 2 Marcelo Ricardo Leitner 2019-07-03 15:09:35 UTC
Mass-moving bugs RHEL <= 7.6.0 to 7.7.0.
As we are past RFE deadline for 7.7.0 and we should have no new features on 7.8.0, please evaluate if it's still wanted on RHEL7 and contact PM for exception. You may also move it to RHEL8 if that's wanted. Thanks!

Comment 6 Thomas Haller 2020-01-22 14:15:35 UTC
Possibly split nm-settings* manual pages into sub manual pages like

nm-settings.ipv4
nm-settings.ethernet


Possibly add nmcli-$CMD manpages (akin to `man git log`).

Comment 7 sushil kulkarni 2020-02-06 15:15:07 UTC
Deferring this to 8.3. Taking it off of the 8.2 RPL.

-Sushil

Comment 12 Vladimir Benes 2020-06-29 16:56:31 UTC
check for nm-settings-{nmcli,dbus,keyfile} added:
https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/NetworkManager/NetworkManager-ci/-/merge_requests/589

Comment 15 errata-xmlrpc 2020-11-04 01:48:18 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 (NetworkManager 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-2020:4499


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