[systemd-devel] Udev won't rename interfaces that are already UP

[Giancarlo Razzolini]

Hi all,

    I am currently the maintainer and developer for some archlinux
initramfs tools that deals with early userspace network. More precisely,
I do develop/maintain these hooks:

    https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/dropbear_initrd_encrypt/
    https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/mkinitcpio-ppp/

    The first make use of the ip= kernel command line parameter and the
latter directly manipulate the desired interface using custom kernel
parameters. But, in both cases, I need to flush the interface and set it
status to DOWN before the initramfs handle the init to systemd. I took a
look at the: src/udev/udev-builtin-net_id.c file and it seems indeed
that it won't rename an interface that is UP. An error is shown in the
journalctl by udev saying the interface couldn't be renamed. I do handle
with this already, but I was wondering if systemd-udevd shouldn't rename
the interface regardless of it state, since the early userspace
interface configuration shouldn't matter after the root is pivoted and
systemd is started. This could be the default or even configurable. What
are your thoughts on this?

Cheers,
Giancarlo Razzolini