Subject: [pcp] application visibility to a new DHCP option

From: "Dan Wing" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 8 Dec 2010 12:29:11 -0800

In the PCP working group, we are considering defining a new DHCP option.
Let's call it PCP_SERVER for the moment.

I know applications running on top of Windows can make API calls to cause
Windows' DHCP stack to return that option value to the application (and
issue a DHCPINFORM if necessary to obtain that option value from the
network).

Do other OSs provide similar capability -- natively or using a library?  Or
are other OSs unable to provide a similar capability?  I am mostly wondering
about OSs that a typical user touches, which in today's market are primarily
OS X, iOS, Android, and to a lesser extent Linux (e.g., TiVo and other
devices).

Thanks,
-d

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From: Ted Lemon <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 9 Dec 2010 08:00:37 -0700

> OS X, iOS, Android, and to a lesser extent Linux (e.g., TiVo and other

OS X has a way to get DHCP results using a configuration manager query.   Linux support was pretty sketchy last time I looked--the easiest way was to parse the dhcp client lease database.   But I haven't looked in a while; in principle, you should be able to do this, and defining a protocol that assumes you can do this is not a bad idea, since it will spur adoption.

As for being able to trigger a DHCPINFORM, I don't have a clear answer for you.   I'm pretty sure this is not possible on Linux or OSX.   However, IMHO it should be, so again I tend to be in favor of creating pressure to make it possible.