RPCNFSDARGS missing from /etc/default/nfs-kernel-server

Hi Patrick,
thank you for your report!

#1 RPCNFSDPRIORITY
That was used with the old style of starting a service like
  start-stop-daemon ... --nicelevel $RPCNFSDPRIORITY
in sysV style nfs-kernel-server.init
Which doesn't work that way in systemd, one would need to set the following in the service file
  LimitNICE=$RPCNFSDPRIORITY

#2 RPCNFSDOPTS
I agree to your analysis of /usr/lib/systemd/scripts/nfs-utils_env.sh generating /run/sysconfig/nfs-utils on behalf of nfs-config.service.
And then nfs-server.service using this ans environment for $RPCNFSDARGS
Of echo RPCNFSDARGS=\"$RPCNFSDOPTS ${RPCNFSDCOUNT:-8}\" we have:
- RPCNFSDCOUNT which is in the .default
- RPCNFSDOPTS missing in .default
- the .default lists some exclusions, but this isn't part of that list

# the following are supported by the systemd units, but not exposed in default files
# echo SMNOTIFYARGS=\"$SMNOTIFYARGS\"
# echo RPCIDMAPDARGS=\"$RPCIDMAPDARGS\"
# echo RPCGSSDARGS=\"$RPCGSSDARGS\"
# echo BLKMAPDARGS=\"$BLKMAPDARGS\"
# echo GSS_USE_PROXY=\"$GSS_USE_PROXY\"

Note: the old sysV also didn't have RPCNFSDOPTS/RPCNFSDARGS it directly passed RPCNFSDCOUNT.
So this isn't a regression but a request to fix a feature (daemon arguments) that seems only partially implemented.

@Patrick - you said "... NFS developers list ...".
I guess that will be:
- https://marc.info/?l=linux-nfs&m=160104525207592&w=2
- https://marc.info/?l=linux-nfs&m=160194005820117&w=2
If there is more that is worth to link please post it on the bug.

I tried to check if other Distributions silently implemented this without pushing/discussing upstream but e.g. on Fedora this has in /usr/lib/systemd/system/nfs-server.service just:

ExecStart=/usr/sbin/rpc.nfsd

And no EnvironmentFile statement at all.

But that doesn't mean there is no arguments at all, they are just on 2.x already which switched
to /etc/nfs.conf which contains e.g. NFS version control.

See:
http://git.linux-nfs.org/?p=steved/nfs-utils.git;a=commit;h=2662e1ba98707014b6167e1e5bd3162d6d8f52af

I guess the triage of this bug takes me deeper into NFS land than I ever was.
Please I beg your pardon if I make mis-assumptions ... :-)

Initial assessment, until we can move to 2.x which has /etc/nfs.conf replacing all of this we should fix both issues.

After confirming the issue and checking some of the code/background.

The .default file is part of the Debian packaging and there is no e.g. example file provided by upstream source to copy from. So it seems to me packaging and upstream got out of sync on this.
- RPCNFSDPRIORITY was always Debian/Ubuntu only but the .service is from upstream
- RPCNFSDOPTS/RPCNFSDARG was added by upstream on the .service, but never got into debian/nfs-kernel-server.default

A fix might IMHO look like:
https://git.launchpad.net/~paelzer/ubuntu/+source/nfs-utils/commit/?id=9266408ab22b88aa00aabd565733afe3799f81b9
https://git.launchpad.net/~paelzer/ubuntu/+source/nfs-utils/commit/?id=837c9b38b347994df7cab4ef482596abce4d5428
https://git.launchpad.net/~paelzer/ubuntu/+source/nfs-utils/commit/?id=07babeb94f8830de550c3147346023e872e406d6

As pushed to https://code.launchpad.net/~paelzer/ubuntu/+source/nfs-utils/+git/nfs-utils/+ref/lp-1898778-opt-parsing

But as I said this isn't my home turf, I need to discuss this with some people and the Debian maintainers. I mean from my naive POV why not go for 2.x but OTOH that might have massive complexities and implications ...

@Foundations-Team
I don't yet know why this was in my inbox today :-) But I hope this initial triage run helps to consider this bug accordingly.

Note - Debian bug for 2.x is https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=917706

And there is bug 1878601; nfs-utils really does need to get upgraded.