[systemd-devel] [PATCH] sd-dhcp: implement IPv4 link-local support

[Lennart Poettering]

On Thu, 27.02.14 14:28, David Timothy Strauss (david at davidstrauss.net) wrote:

> 
> This is a lot of code, and this approach is largely obsoleted by
> link-local IPv6 addressing, which also has the benefits of being
> simpler, deterministic (at least with RFC 4862), and collision-proof.
> Both Apple [1] and Microsoft [2] prefer IPv6 link-local as the best
> practice.
> 
> Is it really that important to support self-assigned IPv4?
> 
> [1] https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/NetServices/Articles/about.html
> [2] https://blogs.technet.com/b/jlosey/archive/2011/02/02/why-you-should-leave-ipv6-alone.aspx

Well, APIPA has been supported in OSes since a lot longer than IPv6
link-local addresses, for example in Windows 98... And I fear IPv4 is
not going to die so soon... It might even be a useful thing for local
containers since it might be faster than DHCPv4 is some cases, if people
actually want IPv4 there. 

Maybe I am biased, because I wrote that IPv4ll implementation in Avahi a
long time ago, but I am pretty sure this is something to support if we
ever want to be a generic solution that speaks enough of these protocols
to be comprehensively useful.

Lennart

-- 
Lennart Poettering, Red Hat