[HECnet] The Bridge

[Johnny Billquist]

On 2011-11-20 13.54, Mark Benson wrote:

On 20 Nov 2011, at 11:24, hvlems at zonnet.nl wrote:

Another feature which would be nice to add generally is something which periodically re-resolves the DNS names in the config file to IP addresses, so that people who use something like DynDNS because they don   t have a fixed IP address, can use it more easily and not fall off the network for too long when their IP address changes. Presumably calling the SIGHUP handler (read_conf) every so often would do the trick.

Feel free. It's not overly complicated. However, make that optional, as maybe not all want that enabled. If DNS lookups take a while (which they definitely do when DNS is having problems), you'll hang the bridge while it's trying to resolve stuff.

It would also be nice to make the code a bit more portable so that it will compile and run on more platforms without modification, a bit like SIMH.

Any changes to make it more portable are always welcome. Just make sure you put the stuff in conditionals, so that the same source still compiles and works on the other platforms.

While we are talking about improvements, would it be possible to make it search a few default locations on Linux/BSD for a config file? Currently you have to start it by cd-ing to the directory the   binary is in as it looks at the current directory for the config file - if you start it from another place if fails.

Perhaps looking in /etc/hecnet or another place you can specify at compile time would be better?

That is easy. Just change the source before compiling, and there you have it. Definitely a compile time thingy, and extremely easy to "fix".

Also would it be difficult or counter-productive to roll the Port configuration into the config file instead of having to specify it at runtime?

If you don't want it on the command line, you can just assign it in the code as a constant. Very easy. :-)

Lastly does anyone know how to roll a init.d script for it to set it as a service in Debian/Ubuntu (10.04)?

Not sure which variant of init debian uses offhand, but in general you just write a small shellscript that don't do much more than just run the command line the same way you do by hand. Grab some other simple service and copy the startup, and then change the command line.
It's ridiculously simple.