[pve-devel] [PATCH container] fix #7156: setup: separate dns list with semicolons

[Maximiliano Sandoval]

Thomas Lamprecht <t.lamprecht at proxmox.com> writes:

> On 17/12/2025 16:06, Maximiliano Sandoval wrote:
>> Network manager uses GLib's key file format [1]. As per `man 5
>> nm-settings-keyfile`:
>> 
>>> lists are separated by character ;
>
> this is just an example though, marked by the "etc" you omitted...
>
> [1] you linked yourself actually spells out:
>
> "Lists are separated by a separator character, typically ; or ,.
> To use the list separator character in a value in a list, it has
> to be escaped by prefixing it with a backslash."

Yes, but the quote is from the nm-settings man page. GLib's .ini format
allows to decide which separator to use **globally**, see [2], it does
not allow for some lists will be handled with one separator while others
with another, not without out-of-tree parsing at least. There are some
exceptions in nm-settings though, but they are mentioned in the man page
and are not handled as lists, namely:

```
Also, some lists of complex values (addresses, routes, routing-rules),
instead of using a semicolon separated list, use one key-value pair per
list element,
```


[2] https://docs.gtk.org/glib/method.KeyFile.set_list_separator.html

>
> And the nm-settings-keyfile man page has tons of usages of comma
> as separator. Please verify this.
>
>> 
>> additionally, table 6 contains an example:
>> 
>>> Example: dns=1.2.3.4;8.8.8.8;8.8.4.4;
>> 
>> [1] https://docs.gtk.org/glib/struct.KeyFile.html
>
>
>
>> 
>> Signed-off-by: Maximiliano Sandoval <m.sandoval at proxmox.com>
>> ---
>> 
>> Running `nmcli` with this patch on a new rockylinux 10 container results in 
>> 
>> ```
>> DNS configuration:
>>         servers: 10.10.10.2 10.10.10.22
>>         domains: testinstall
>>         interface: eth0
>> ```
>> 
>> and 
>> ```
>> $ grep 'dns=' /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/eth0.nmconnection
>> dns=10.10.10.2;10.10.10.22
>> ```
>> 
>> and domain resolution seems to works as expected.
>> 
>> 
>>  src/PVE/LXC/Setup/CentOS.pm | 4 ++--
>>  1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
>> 
>> diff --git a/src/PVE/LXC/Setup/CentOS.pm b/src/PVE/LXC/Setup/CentOS.pm
>> index 0826977..7bccca2 100644
>> --- a/src/PVE/LXC/Setup/CentOS.pm
>> +++ b/src/PVE/LXC/Setup/CentOS.pm
>> @@ -244,7 +244,7 @@ sub setup_network_with_networkmanager {
>>                  }
>>              }
>>              if (@name_servers_v4) {
>> -                $data .= "dns=" . join(',', @name_servers_v4) . "\n";
>> +                $data .= "dns=" . join(';', @name_servers_v4) . "\n";
>>                  $data .= "dns-search=" . join(' ', PVE::Tools::split_list($searchdomains)) . "\n"
>>                      if $searchdomains;
>>              }
>> @@ -270,7 +270,7 @@ sub setup_network_with_networkmanager {
>>                  }
>>              }
>>              if (@name_servers_v6) {
>> -                $data .= "dns=" . join(',', @name_servers_v6) . "\n";
>> +                $data .= "dns=" . join(';', @name_servers_v6) . "\n";
>>                  $data .= "dns-search=" . join(' ', PVE::Tools::split_list($searchdomains)) . "\n"
>>                      if $searchdomains;
>>              }

-- 
Maximiliano