From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Rick Jones Subject: Re: IP address: property of host or interface? Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2009 09:43:05 -0800 Message-ID: <497DF629.70602@hp.com> References: <497B1E5E.9050309@msgid.tls.msk.ru> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: netdev To: Michael Tokarev Return-path: Received: from g4t0017.houston.hp.com ([15.201.24.20]:6582 "EHLO g4t0017.houston.hp.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1753584AbZAZRnI (ORCPT ); Mon, 26 Jan 2009 12:43:08 -0500 In-Reply-To: <497B1E5E.9050309@msgid.tls.msk.ru> Sender: netdev-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: > So.. am I right that an IP address is a HOST property, not an INTERFACE > property, and that the traditional way is just more convenient to set up? And > that all the tools that complains that "there's no IP address assigned to this > interface" (tcpdump) are wrong? :) There are two "schools" of thought - the Linux stack follows the "weak end system" model in which IP addresses are treated as a host property. There is another school of thought called the "strong end system" model where IP addresses are an interface property. There are some "other" stacks out there which can be configured to behave in a "strong end system" way but they tend to default to more of something in between the two. Tcpdump may simply be caught in the middle :) rick jones