feat(network): now supports ephemeral interfaces

[Swivelgames]

What type of PR is this? (check all applicable)

• Refactor
• Feature
• Bug Fix
• Optimization
• Documentation Update
• Other: Replace this with a description of the type of this PR

Description

This updates the Network Module to allow for ephemeral networks. This is especially useful for virtual interfaces that come and go depending on whether or not an application has created it or not.

Additionally, this adds rudimentary support for wireguard in the net adapter, treating it as a tunnel. Because wireguard does not communicate connected state (given that it's a stealth VPN), the mere existence of the interface assumes that it is connected. Mullvad and MozillaVPN, for instance, create the interface when establishing connection, and discard the interface entirely when disconnecting, so this is a good indicator for that.

Related Issues & Documents

Fixes #1164
Fixes #1531

Documentation (check all applicable)

• This PR requires changes to the Wiki documentation (describe the changes)
• This PR requires changes to the documentation inside the git repo (please add them to the PR).
• Does not require documentation changes

[Swivelgames]

Can this get some love? :)

[Swivelgames]

Just rebased from master branch. Rebuilt and everything is still working great 👍

Still using this as a daily driver, and it is highly stable.

[Swivelgames]

Updated to latest from master. Still daily-driving without issues! 🎉

[1995parham]

Is it possible to do the same for tun devices. I think this should be more general.

[Swivelgames]

@1995parham

Is it possible to do the same for tun devices. I think this should be more general.

The current implementation attempts to probe the interface. I'm assuming this isn't sufficient for tun devices right now?

polybar/src/adapters/net.cpp

Lines 423 to 432 in 2ee52f3

	memset(&request, 0, sizeof(request));
	strncpy(request.ifr_name, m_interface.c_str(), IFNAMSIZ - 1);
	data.cmd = ETHTOOL_GLINK;
	request.ifr_data = reinterpret_cast<char*>(&data);
	if (ioctl(*m_socketfd, SIOCETHTOOL, &request) == -1) {
	return false;
	}
	return data.data != 0;

Do you have an open issue that you can reference for the issue you're running into?

[1995parham]

Thanks for your answer. It is not sufficient I think, because right now it cannot detect interface change (when VPN is off or on).

[Swivelgames]

@1995parham Have you tried pulling down this PR and testing if it fixes your issue? A big portion of this PR was reorganizing src/modules/network.cpp so that it simply marks interfaces that it can't find as disconnected.

If this PR is insufficient, it might be good to create a new Issue ticket to encourage some discussion on how best to fix the issue. It's very possible that it could end up in this PR, or a fast-follow.

[1995parham]

I will do it and let you know.

[1995parham]

I've checked it. It works for me 😍 I think this MR deserve more attention. I will continue using it as my daily driver.

[Swivelgames]

Hey @patrick96! Any chance we can get any traction on this? 🙂👍

[BICH0]

Why is this not in upstream!!

[Swivelgames]

@BICH0 Unfortunately, this repo seems to be pretty slow moving. Most of the PRs, especially hotly-anticipated ones like #2868 that are out there right now have been hanging out for a couple of years now. The only PRs that seem to get much traction are related to brand new issue tickets. I don't think @patrick96 has notifications turned on for new PRs 😅

I tried sending him an email back in January, but I imagine it got filtered into his Spam folder.