netspace - a dead simple start script for your lab network services

Let's say you want to run a few services for your embedded devices on a separate network interface. You may want to do this as your IT department may be upset with you if you start a dhcp/dns tftp and webservers on your internal network.

netspace is a few dead (not to say stupid) simple start scripts for starting a few services on a network interface without worrying about how those services may interact with your other interfaces.

It provides a simple interface for creating a namespace with a single interface, sets it up for you, and runs your start scripts. You can ofcourse do further setup (or all of it) in the start scripts if you like.

make config
make install # install binaries / config
systemctl enable netspace
systemctl start netspace

Or manually create a netspace for one session.

netspace.sh create eth1 192.168.1.99 foo
netspacectl start foo

By default, all scripts in /etc/netspace/init.d are executed with $START set to a suitable execute command which will execute the line inside the netspace.

Example start script:

# init.d/dnsmasq.sh
#!/bin/bash
$START /usr/sbin/dnsmasq -x /run/dnsmasq/dnsmasq.pid -u dnsmasq -7 /etc/dnsmasq.d,.dpkg-dist,.dpkg-old,.dpkg-new --local-service

Currently, netspace installes an init.d/ which depends on the packages listed below. These are by no means a requirement, and please design your /etc/netspace/init.d according to your needs. If you want to use these services, just use the install command sudo apt install dnsmasq syslog-ng tftpd-hpa or your package manager equivalent.

dnsmasq
syslog-ng
tftpd-hpa