argus-server: argus interface monitoring confusion

[Yotam Rubin]

On Thu, May 15, 2003 at 11:42:26PM -0400, Carter Bullard wrote:

Initially, I did not intend for the patch to included only in the Debian
version of argus, that's why I CC'd the list.

> Hey Andrew,
>    I'm going to be fixing one aspect of this problem
> this weekend, where we should only open an interface
> once, but Yotam is raising another issue which is
> not necessarily correct.  Do command line specifications
> have precedence over configuration file specs?
> 
>    One of the biggest issues with command line switches
> that can also be specified in configuration files, is
> the order of the specification.  How should argus
> deal with this scenario, for example:
> 
>    argus -i eth0 -F argus.conf
> 
> where the argus.conf file specifies interface eth1?
> 
> Compare this to this next call:
> 
>    argus -F argus.conf -i eth0

In all cases, command line arguments should have precedence over the 
configuration file. Command line arguments are more explicit than configuration
file directives, in the sense that the user must specifically request them
upon invocation, as opposed to configuration file directives which have 
probably been present prior to the invocation.

> should argus behave the same in both situations?  It
> is not clear that they should be the same.
> And with calls such as:
> 
>    argus -F arg1.conf -F arg2.conf -F arg3.conf

Is the feature of stacking configuration files being used by many users?
It is a bit problematic, since it's not obvious what sort of implications it
has:
 * Are stackable options being stacked across configuration files?
 * What about boolean directives?

If this feature isn't being used extensively already, I think it should be
removed altogether, as to avoid common confusions. A less preferable 
alternative would be to document the behavior of this feature extensively.

	Regards, Yotam Rubin


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