From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
From: Stephen Hemminger <shemminger@linux-foundation.org>
Subject: Re: [PROPOSAL]: Alias names for network interfaces
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 2009 09:36:21 -0800
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To: <Narendra_K@Dell.com>
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On Mon, 21 Dec 2009 22:58:09 +0530
<Narendra_K@Dell.com> wrote:

> > On Fri, 18 Dec 2009 18:49:15 +0530
> > <Narendra_K@Dell.com> wrote:
> > 
> > > The installer solution involved renaming the network interface names
> > > from ethN to something else based on the naming convention that the
> > user
> > > specified. For example, if the user chose "smbios names" as the the
> > > naming convention then all ethN would be renamed to Embedded_NIC_N.
> > > ifconfig would show Embedded_NIC_N instead of ethN.
> > 
> > Renaming away from ethN causes some applications like net-snmp to get
> > confused,
> > and others have special sorting rules based on existing model (like
> > quagga).
> > 
> > I would argue that the "ethN" convention is part of existing system
> > ABI and should not get changed in a visible way to applications.
> 
> Stephen,
> 
> Thanks. What are your views on the current proposal we are making where
> ethN names are not changed (or renamed) and libnetdevname would suggest
> alias names for the ethN names ( and also alias to ethN names) in user
> space. Applications like ip, ethtool etc can use these aliases, make
> calls to libnetdevname and get the ethN name. 
> 
> Libnetdevname would read from sysfs the smbios names of the network
> interface devices as Jordan mentioned
> (/sys/class/net/ethX/device/smbiosname). Would this be acceptable ?

I have no need or use for them, but if it doesn't break other things
then sure.