From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S262145AbTEHWGk (ORCPT ); Thu, 8 May 2003 18:06:40 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S262164AbTEHWGk (ORCPT ); Thu, 8 May 2003 18:06:40 -0400 Received: from palrel12.hp.com ([156.153.255.237]:11679 "EHLO palrel12.hp.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S262145AbTEHWGi (ORCPT ); Thu, 8 May 2003 18:06:38 -0400 Date: Thu, 8 May 2003 15:19:12 -0700 To: Eli Carter Cc: Linux kernel mailing list , Russell King , "Randy.Dunlap" , Jeff Garzik Subject: Re: The magical mystical changing ethernet interface order Message-ID: <20030508221912.GA27904@bougret.hpl.hp.com> Reply-To: jt@hpl.hp.com References: <20030508193245.GA26721@bougret.hpl.hp.com> <3EBACF9D.5070501@inet.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <3EBACF9D.5070501@inet.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.3.28i Organisation: HP Labs Palo Alto Address: HP Labs, 1U-17, 1501 Page Mill road, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA. E-mail: jt@hpl.hp.com From: Jean Tourrilhes Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Thu, May 08, 2003 at 04:43:57PM -0500, Eli Carter wrote: > Jean Tourrilhes wrote: > [snip] > >Randy.Dunlap wrote : > > > >>An alternative is to use 'nameif' to associate MAC addresses with > >>interface names. See here for mini HOWTO: > >> > >> http://www.xenotime.net/linux/doc/network-interface-names.txt > > > > > > Currently this feels like a kludge, because not fully > >inegrated, but goes in the right direction. > > Actually, it's pretty funny that the original Pcmcia package > >got it right since the beggining (and Win2k as well), but > >distributions took a step backward from that when integrating Pcmcia. > > My belief is that configuration scripts should be specified in > >term of MAC address (or subset) and not in term of device name. Just > >like the Pcmcia scripts are doing it. > > And let's go the extra mile : ifconfig should accept a MAC > >address as the argument instead of a device name. And in the long > >term, just get rid of device name from the user view. > > Some network devices do not have a mac address on power-up and must be > supplied one. > > Eli For those devices there is little difference conceptually between using ifname to bind them to a known name and using ifconfig to set the MAC address : you need to set the MAC address prior to any operation, and when it's done, you have a MAC address so you can deal with it like any other device. Anyway, those devices are so rare that I would not optimise for them, and I would tradeof a bit more sanity for usual device in exchange to a few complications for unusual devices. And I'm also perfectly well aware that some devices such IrDA devices and PPP devices doesn't have a fixed 48bit address so can't be handled with the scheme I propose. But those devices are usually handled in their own way. Have fun... Jean