[mythtv] Proposed change to Network Communications

[Peter Bennett]

MythTV Developers
I propose a change to the Host Address Backend setup.

In the Local Backend section add a checkbox "Listen on all addresses". 
This should be the default for a new system. If checked, it should force 
"Listen on Link-Local addresses" to be checked.

Under "Master Backend", add a checkbox "This Backend is Master". When 
that is selected, the IP address text input will be a dropdown box with 
the IPv4 address and IPv6 address above as options. When that is 
unselected, the IP Address field is disabled from input.

Listening on all addresses solves the problem of an interface that is 
down when the backend starts up. New Interfaces automatically are 
listened on when they are attached. I tested by plugging in a USB wifi 
dongle after starting the backend, and it is able to receive 
communications on that device.

The only time I can imagine listening on all ip addresses is unwanted is 
if you are running two backends on the same machine, with different ip 
addresses for each. This seems an unusual situation but can be handled 
by deselecting "Listen on all addresses".

Providing the "This Backend is Master" and drop down list will help with 
IPV6 addresses which are somewhat painful to manually type. Also it will 
prevent a horrible situation where you supply one of the backend's 
alternate IP addresses as the Master backend IP address and it starts up 
as a slave then connects to itself as master backend, so it is a slave 
to itself. I expect bad things would happen.

Please let me know of any comments to this proposal.

I have tried a quick change to make it listen on all addresses and a 
cursory test appears to be fine that way.

Peter