[pkg-wpa-devel] Re: wifiroamd as a Summer of Code project

[Alexej Davidov]

Hi,

you suggest to split wpasupplicant into two different programs, one for
roaming and one for encryption stuff. I find this a good idea, because
it helps the "one purpose - one program" paradigm and could make things
simpler and more flexible. But then you suggest:

> ...
> it should associate with that accesspoint and give control to
> ifupdown.

So two separate things should be put into one program, again. In my
opinion, wifiroamd should only do roaming, no bringing up of
interfaces. We have ifplugd for this purpose and it works perfectly (at
least for me). It already detects when a wireless IF is associated.
Also, with the ifplugd approach one can treat wired and wireless
interfaces the same way. As soon as the IF is associated with an AP
(done by wifiroamd) there is no reason why it should be handled
differently from wired interfaces.

> It can be thought of as a ifplugd for wireless devices.

But it shouldn't. ifplugd is already there. No need to reinvent the
wheel.

Maybe the approach you've suggested seems logical, once one has
approved of the new ifupdown config for wpasupplicant, which already
introduces such an arbitrary distinction between wired (where you can
use ifplugd) and wirelese interfaces (where you can't and you have to
reinvent it using other means). So my problem with the suggested
solution might be more fundamental, as I don't approve of the new
config scheme, to begin with.

Still I think, you should take into consideration the tools that are
already out there doing their job and try to integrate with them,
instead of reinventing them. 

Kind regards,
A.