Comment 14 for bug 1549473

> Robie: If the service offers a mechanism to set a specific NIC to listen on, then the service should make good on that offer when it's requested. Doesn't that make sense to you?

Correct. If you configure the service to listen on a specific NIC, you should also configure the service to wait for that NIC to be up before it attempts to start.

> All services that require a NIC to function should wait for that NIC to come alive. Having a service start or attempt to start before what it needs for life support is available makes no sense.

So don't configure it like that.

> Allowing a service to start on a bogus IP address provides no "service". What's the point of having a service technically up if it's deaf to traffic?

What you're asking for is the system to algorithmically detect when it has been configured this way and defer starting of the service. This isn't a feature that currently exists. The workaround is to adjust service dependencies at the same time as you change your service configuration to add that dependency.

This problem is more complex than you might think. See https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/NetworkTarget/ for some background.

> I can't see where this qualifies as a wishlist item. The service advertises a feature and doesn't provide it. To me, that's a bug.

Which service? This problem crosses an integration point: the upstream sshd daemon versus the service manager.

In any case, arguing about whether it is a bug or a feature doesn't change anything. If you'd like to see this fixed properly, please volunteer your time upstream to implement the proposed solution.