[systemd-devel] Ordering services issue. Trying to start ptp4l in bonding setup fails as bonding appears to take a while.

[James Feeney]

On 12/1/21 13:27, Brian Hutchinson wrote:
> Maybe I'm missing something here but I don't see any way for me to "add targets" to this problem to solve it ...

Well, of course, that's a problem.  Maybe you can take the construction step by step.

First, do you have *five* different unit files, the three different service files and the two target files?

Second, reviewing your service file, we see references to "systemd-networkd".  That suggests some confusion.

"systemd-networkd" is a systemd hosted network management system, but it is NOT the same thing as using systemd AS the network management system.  They are two completely different things.  Choose one or the other.

If you choose to use systemd-networkd, I cannot help you, and you are left to appeal to the systemd-networkd developers.  Personally, this was the circumstance that I very much wanted to avoid, and is the motivation for using systemd directly, instead of systemd-networkd, or any other "canned" network management systems.  When those systems break, you get to keep both pieces.

If you choose to use systemd directly as the network management system, then you may have to build the system one step at a time.  And if, in fact, there is some function needed that is fundamentally missing from systemd itself, that is a systemd bug that should be addressed specifically.  For now, I don't know that that is the case here.  Still, I have not tried yet to understand exactly what you mean by "use carrier state".

But, there is another problem.  It is not quite clear to me what your issue is here.  On the one hand, you are asking about network bonding, and on the the other, you are referencing the Precision Time Protocol Boundary Clock and Ordinary Clock client service, ptp4l.

Are you having a problem with network bonding?  Or a problem with your ptp4l?

James