Re: The magical mystical changing ethernet interface order

Jean Tourrilhes
2003-05-08T22:06:40Z

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