docs/source/intro.rst

   1 python-ifupdown2
   2 ----------------
   3
   4 The python-ifupdown2 package provides the infrastructure for
   5 parsing /etc/network/interfaces file, loading, scheduling, template parsing,
   6 state management and interface dependency generation of interfaces.
   7 It dynamically loads python addon modules from /usr/share/ifupdownmodules.
   8 To remain compatible with other packages that depend on ifupdown, it also
   9 executes scripts under /etc/network/. To make the transition smoother, a
  10 python module under /usr/share/ifupdownmodules will override a script by
  11 the same name under /etc/network/. ifupdown2 publishes an interface object which
  12 is passed to all loadble python addon modules. All lodable modules are
  13 called for every interface declared in the /etc/network/interfaces file.
  14
  15 Addon modules are responsible for applying interface configuration.
  16 python-ifupdown2 ships with a set of default addon modules. Each module can
  17 declare its own set of supported attributes. Each module is passed the iface
  18 object (which is a representation of /etc/network/interfaces
  19 iface entry). Each module is also passed the operation to be performed.
  20
  21 Example modules are /usr/share/ifupdownmodules/address.py,
  22 /usr/share/ifupdownmodules/bridge.py etc
  23
  24 The order in which these modules are invoked is listed in
  25 /var/lib/ifupdownaddons/addons.conf. There is an ifaddon utility in the works
  26 to better manage the module ordering.
  27
  28 For more details on adding an addon module, see the section on adding python
  29 modules. For details on how to write a module, see the api reference and
  30 development documentation.
  31