networking.7: Scope netif to wlan0

[ziaee]

Summary

I recently learned we can select just wlan0 instead of the whole netif.

OUTSTANDING:
+ Should we edit the caveat at the bottom? I like keeping it terse.

MFC after: 3 days

[emaste]

The previous text Restart the network interface daemon wasn't completely accurate before, but I think it's close enough that inaccuracy can be hand-waved away. Now that daemon on the Wi-Fi interface is more specific it seems more important to be accurate.

There isn't one specific daemon associated with the specific network interface, and netif start/stop/restart does much more than just starting/stopping/restarting a daemon -- it handles cloning/network interface configuration etc. Maybe just Restart the Wi-Fi interface or Reinitialize the Wi-Fi interface.

[ziaee]

I dont want to overload the term interface. What about this?

[emaste]

What service is being restarted though?

[ziaee]

netif.

[emaste]

I think the change overall is good -- the example is certainly impmroved. I still think it's better w/o adding "service" though. There isn't really a Wi-Fi interface service. Something like "Reconfigure and restart network configuration and dameons related to the Wi-Fi interface" would be pedantically correct but terribly wordy. "Restart the netif service for the Wi-Fi interface" is short but still awkward.

+ Should we edit the caveat at the bottom? I like keeping it terse.

I think the caveat is fine as is. There is a comma splice (before "see the manual...") that ought to be removed though.

[bz]

Ignore all my comments for now as they are out of scope for this fix. But maybe we should refine this further in the future.

share/man/man7/networking.7

48

Also does more than just ask for DHCP as you also start WPA

52

No IPv6 here.

62

While I agree this is a simple solution it is the very bad solution people have been hammering in for too long.

(a) service wpa_supplicant start wlan0
(b) doing a restart wlan0 will destroy the interface, through away any possible scan results already, and setup things all again. Just means longer times to associate normally and a lot of more churn of kernel resources.

[bz]

share/man/man7/networking.7

62

Something had been bothering me for the last hours but my brain figured it out; we never started wlan0 before so why do we restart it up there instead of start it up there?
Does restart do more than start here?

[ziaee]

use emaste's suggested text and fix comma splice

[ziaee]

share/man/man7/networking.7

48

Yeah. I don't know how to make this better. For this type of doc, it needs to be kinda handwavy or its just inaccessible. I mean, it should still be true, right :P

52

So, we would need a second command for that?

62

i use the whole netif because theres all kinds of moving parts that can be... not moving, right? like routing gets messed up or stopped sometimes.

i always use restart because start will fail if it's started already. restart will work even if its stopped or hasn't been started yet (NOAUTOed, which is really necessary because if you're in random places and not connected to wifi, your console will get spammed).