What were you trying to do that didn't work?

Update a Kea dhcp server configuration but check if the configuration is valid in first place

What is the impact of this issue to you?

Catch-22 with the configuration check. A test of the configuration demands a different control socket path than the service (and vice versa).

Please provide the package NVR for which the bug is seen:

kea-3.0.1-2.el10_1.x86_64

How reproducible is this bug?:

always

Steps to reproduce

Kea control socket is configured like this:

  "control-socket": {
    "socket-type": "unix",
    "socket-name": "/run/kea/kea4-ctrl-socket"
  },

When testing the configuration:

[server] /root # /usr/sbin/kea-dhcp4 -t /etc/kea/kea-dhcp4.conf >/dev/null
Error encountered: 'socket-name' is invalid: invalid path specified: '/run/kea', supported path is '/var/run/kea'
[gordo-vm10] /root # echo $?
1

When I change Kea configuration to:

"control-socket": {
    "socket-type": "unix",
    "socket-name": "/var/run/kea/kea4-ctrl-socket"
  },

the test works:

[server] /root # /usr/sbin/kea-dhcp4 -t /etc/kea/kea-dhcp4.conf >/dev/null
[server] /root # echo $?
0

But I cannot start the service then:

[server] /root # systemctl restart kea-dhcp4.service 
Job for kea-dhcp4.service failed because the control process exited with error code.
See "systemctl status kea-dhcp4.service" and "journalctl -xeu kea-dhcp4.service" for details.
[server] /root # journalctl -u kea-dhcp4.service | tail -n 5
Dec 19 09:29:40 server kea-dhcp4[9024]: ERROR [kea-dhcp4.dhcp4.140234261276800] DHCP4_INIT_FAIL failed to initialize Kea server: configuration error using file '/etc/kea/kea-dhcp4.conf': 'socket-name' is invalid: invalid path specified: '/var/run/kea', supported path is '/run/kea'
Dec 19 09:29:40 server kea-dhcp4[9024]: 2025-12-19 09:29:40.134 ERROR [kea-dhcp4.dhcp4/9024.140234261276800] DHCP4_INIT_FAIL failed to initialize Kea server: configuration error using file '/etc/kea/kea-dhcp4.conf': 'socket-name' is invalid: invalid path specified: '/var/run/kea', supported path is '/run/kea'
Dec 19 09:29:40 server systemd[1]: kea-dhcp4.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Dec 19 09:29:40 server systemd[1]: kea-dhcp4.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Dec 19 09:29:40 server systemd[1]: Failed to start kea-dhcp4.service - Kea DHCPv4 Server.

Expected results

I can test the configuration before I try to restart the Kea service

Actual results

Catch-22