[libvirt] Bug - libvirt persists on having dnsmasq

[Matthias Bolte]

2011/8/16 Zdenek Styblik <stybla at turnovfree.net>:
> On 08/16/11 18:07, Zdenek Styblik wrote:
> [...]
>>>> Well, libvirt.spec has had Require: dnsmasq for at least a couple
>>>> years, so any install of a libvirt rpm should fail when dnsmasq
>>>> isn't present. I don't know for certain how long the BuildRequires:
>>>> dnsmasq has been there, but certainly for at least a year (the last
>>>> time the line was modified), so any rpm builds should also fail.
>>>>
>>>> But of course if you're running ./autogen.sh and then make, that
>>>> doesn't involve the specfile.
>>>>
>>>> dnsmasq really is an integral part of the network driver; I don't
>>>> know that it makes any sense to "fix" things so it can be built
>>>> without dnsmasq. It's probably a good idea to make the failure
>>>> complete though.
>>>
>>> We already have an option to disable the virtual network driver. I don't
>>> think we want to have a separate option for dnsmasq, since that is an
>>> integral part of hte network driver IMHO
>>>
>>> Daniel
>>
>> I'm sorry, but what? I did not understand single word, and I mean it -
>> no irony, no pun.
>>
>> In other words and what I took from the reply, you mean to tell me from
>> libvirt-0.9.4 and on one is forced to have dnsmasq around resp. to use
>> libvirt?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Z.
>
>
> So, let me just repeat whole thing again.
>
> Up until libvirt version 0.9.3, libvirt was able to auto-magically
> detect presence of dnsmasq. And in case dnsmasq was not found during
> ./configure; libvirt wouldn't try to use it.

Actually I think that's not true. I think the code just accidentally
ignored it when dnsmasq could not be started. This commit (part of
libvirt 0.9.4)

http://libvirt.org/git/?p=libvirt.git;a=commit;h=85a954cebbbb3ae6210a779a5f3b29559ec5f862

fixed this. I didn't test it but this seems to be the cause for the
problem you're describing.

> However, since libvirt version 0.9.4 resp. in libvirt version 0.9.4 this
> auto-magical detection does not work and libvirt persists on using
> dnsmasq which is not present.

True, because a bug was fixed. It may look to you as there was a
feature that's broken now, but that's not the case, I think. The code
is expecting dnsmasq to be available when a virtual network is used.

A simple solution for you might be to revert commit
85a954cebbbb3ae6210a779a5f3b29559ec5f862 and go back to exploiting the
bug, that made it work for you as you expect it.

> I don't know what to make from your replies as it seems like you don't
> want to get blame for this one nor there seems to be will not to make
> libvirt dnsmasq independent.

I don't think that this is the case here. I think Dan and Laine
weren't aware that there was a bug fixed in libvirt 0.9.4 that gave
you the impression that dnsmasq was optional.

> I blame nobody. I want to know, I want to fix it one way or another, and
> move on.

One could argue that the virtual network code could be more fine
grained and only start dnsmasq when it's really necessary, as this is
what you expect from it. Currently it tries to start dnsmasq when the
network contains an <ip> element. See

http://libvirt.org/git/?p=libvirt.git;a=blob;f=src/network/bridge_driver.c#l1806

You might suggest that it only should start/require dnsmasq when there
is a <dhcp> element or something DNS related that really makes dnsmasq
necessary.

-- 
Matthias Bolte
http://photron.blogspot.com