#1123681 distcc: systemd service ALLOWEDNETS breaks with multiple ranges

Package:
distcc
Source:
distcc
Description:
simple distributed compiler client and server
Submitter:
Alex Karle
Date:
2025-12-19 21:35:10 UTC
Severity:
normal
#1123681#5
Date:
2025-12-19 20:52:03 UTC
From:
To:
Dear Maintainer,

With the transition from init script to systemd service, the ALLOWEDNETS
setting no longer works for multiple IP ranges due to bad argument
expansion in the service file.

In /etc/default/distcc, I have:

    ALLOWEDNETS="10.0.0.0/24 172.16.0.0/24"

Then in /usr/lib/systemd/system/distcc.service, it is expanded:

    EnvironmentFile=-/etc/default/distcc
    ExecStart=/bin/sh -c 'if [ "$ZEROCONF" = "true" ]; then /usr/bin/distccd --daemon --no-detach --allow $ALLOWEDNETS --zeroconf; \
            else /usr/bin/distccd --daemon --no-detach --allow $ALLOWEDNETS --listen $LISTENER --jobs $JOBS --nice $NICE; fi'

But this expands to `--allow 10.0.0.0/24 172.16.0.0/24`. The --allow
option only takes one argument so the 172.16.0.0 is silently dropped
without warning. The command should be `--allow 10... --allow 172...`.

One possible solution would be to use a subshell to expand it:

    ExecStart=/bin/sh -c 'if [ "$ZEROCONF" = "true" ]; then \
    /usr/bin/distccd --daemon --no-detach \
     $(for net in $ALLOWEDNETS; do echo --allow $net; done) \
     --zeroconf; \
            else /usr/bin/distccd --daemon --no-detach \
             $(for net in $ALLOWEDNETS; do echo --allow $net; done) \
            --listen $LISTENER --jobs $JOBS --nice $NICE; fi'

There may be other better solutions too.

Thanks for your time and help,
Alex