From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Tue, 7 Aug 2001 20:04:28 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Tue, 7 Aug 2001 20:04:18 -0400 Received: from mail301.mail.bellsouth.net ([205.152.58.161]:58826 "EHLO imf01bis.bellsouth.net") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id ; Tue, 7 Aug 2001 20:04:05 -0400 Message-ID: <3B708202.105D696B@Bellsouth.net> Date: Tue, 07 Aug 2001 20:04:18 -0400 From: Josh Wyatt X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.76 [en] (X11; U; Linux 2.2.19 i686) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Riley Williams CC: Mark Atwood , Andrzej Krzysztofowicz , Michael McConnell , Linux Kernel Subject: Re: How does "alias ethX drivername" in modules.conf work? In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Why not have a provision like the following: 1. For a given driver, assign ethX in [ascending|descending] (pick one) order based on MAC addr. At least this is a predictable order; it should never change for a given driver. 2. If it's modular, you could make it even more flexible with options: alias eth0 eepro100 alias eth1 ne2k-pci alias eth2 eepro100 options eepro100 "bind_mac_order=eth0,eth2 bind_mac_list=00D0B760C299,00D0B760C3DC" 3. if it's modular and insmod'ed with no options, default to a combo of the current behavior and #1, above. Of course, you'd have to rely on the module maintainers to follow the convention. Also, I can see a potential dependency manifested in a scenario like this: 1. add eth0, eth1, eth2 as above 2. un-hot-plug eth0. now hotplug another interface, not used by the previous driver 3. eepro100 driver is still bound to eth0 4. should the new device get eth3? or eth0? 5. Is this a textbook problem outside of PCMCIA? Dumb? Klutzy? thoughts? Thanks, Josh