From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Jon Masters Subject: network interface *name* alias support? Date: Wed, 21 May 2008 18:47:58 -0400 Message-ID: <1211410078.27149.70.camel@perihelion> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit To: netdev Return-path: Received: from dallas.jonmasters.org ([72.29.103.172]:54064 "EHLO dallas.jonmasters.org" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1753991AbYEUXRg (ORCPT ); Wed, 21 May 2008 19:17:36 -0400 Received: from boston.jonmasters.org ([74.92.29.237] helo=[192.168.1.3]) by dallas.jonmasters.org with esmtpsa (TLS-1.0:DHE_RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:32) (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1Jyx6P-0006Hn-1O for netdev@vger.kernel.org; Wed, 21 May 2008 22:48:09 +0000 Sender: netdev-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: Hi, I would like to add support for network interface name aliases to the kernel. For example, rather than simply "eth0", one might have: eth0 -> eth_slot_0_0 And use either name for device configuration, etc. This should be pretty easy, but I would like some comments - in particular, has this been done already and I'm missing something? Why is this useful? Say, for example that your a manufacturer building machines using the latest DMI extension to SMBIOS that allows you to specify what the physical ordering of interfaces is. Then, a distribution might choose to configure based on the physical slot ordering specified by the vendor - allowing for "rip and replace". Jon.