[systemd-devel] Should `MACAddressPolicy=persistent` for bridges/bonds/all-software-devices be reconsidered?

[Dusty Mabe]

On 5/12/22 12:43, Lennart Poettering wrote:
> On Mo, 09.05.22 22:37, Dusty Mabe (dusty at dustymabe.com) wrote:
> 
>>> This is true. But one can just as well argument that with
>>> MACAddressPolicy=persistent the address is even more predictable. If
>>> you know the machine-id and device name, you can calculate the address
>>> in advance, even before deciding if the device will e.g. have this or
>>> that card attached.
>>
>> Regarding machine-id, isn't that unique and set on first boot?
> 
> Not necessarily. We will initialize it from the ID passed in through
> DMI if we detect execution in a VM and the ID is not set yet. This
> means cloud providers can control the machine ID a system will use
> ahead of time.
> 

OK. But in practice, how often is that used versus machine-id just being
randomly generated on first boot?

Dusty