Re: Thoughts on interface modes / multiple guest addresses

[Stefano Brivio <sbrivio@redhat.com>]

On Tue, 16 Dec 2025 16:53:49 +1100
David Gibson <david@gibson.dropbear.id.au> wrote:

> Hi Jon,
> 
> As discussed on the call yesterday, I've written up my thoughts on
> what a bunch of the address semantics should be.  Turns out I'd
> already done some of this at:
>     https://pad.passt.top/p/InterfaceMode

Two general comments:

1. local mode is already implemented, and some things such as the
   interface name ("tap0") are already defined, see man page and
   'pasta -- pasta --config-net ip a'

2. I think it's more relevant to define the basics of how one switches
   between the existing local mode and a mode where we copy addresses
   and routes (as they become available on the host), rather than
   defining every single detail of these modes.

   In these terms, I think it would actually be helpful to *avoid*
   seeing them as separate modes. If there's no host connectivity, we'll
   start in local mode, and switch to the other mode as we get addresses
   and routes configured... just to switch back to the previous mode if
   we lose them.

   So does it really help to have "modes" instead of just considering
   what addresses and routes are we going to delete, and when? Because
   that's what we'll need to do anyway (and that's what I think defines
   the design).

   I see that this is not an explicit use case in Jon's list (which I
   still have to review), but it's one of the most two fundamental ones
   I think (that, and Podman Quadlets), also nicely described by a user
   at:

     https://github.com/containers/podman/discussions/22737#discussioncomment-9478727

> I've now updated to cover some more things, and considering the
> possibility of multiple guest addresses..  Turns out etherpad doesn't
> really do tables, so it's two sections for the two suggested modes,
> with matching subheadings.

It does, but I disabled the plug-in as you reported an issue which
turned out to be https://github.com/bitwarden/clients/issues/17598
instead, and I was trying to sort out other possible reasons.

I just re-enabled it, tables are available from the toolbar, there's
an icon just left of "Font Family". Note that it's still beta:

  https://www.npmjs.com/package/ep_data_tables

and it has a couple of glitches. I just found one (which I didn't debug
or report yet): don't start a page with a table, always write something
before, otherwise it gets duplicated every time you load the document.

Other than that it looks reasonably robust to me, maybe quickly try with
a test pad first but I think it should be usable.

-- 
Stefano