From owner-freebsd-net@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Aug 13 19:36:09 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-net@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6E35F106564A for ; Thu, 13 Aug 2009 19:36:09 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from delphij@delphij.net) Received: from tarsier.delphij.net (delphij-pt.tunnel.tserv2.fmt.ipv6.he.net [IPv6:2001:470:1f03:2c9::2]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id F1AE58FC51 for ; Thu, 13 Aug 2009 19:36:08 +0000 (UTC) Received: from tarsier.geekcn.org (tarsier.geekcn.org [211.166.10.233]) (using TLSv1 with cipher ADH-CAMELLIA256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by tarsier.delphij.net (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 9BC1F5C06F for ; Fri, 14 Aug 2009 03:36:07 +0800 (CST) Received: from localhost (tarsier.geekcn.org [211.166.10.233]) by tarsier.geekcn.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5EFCD55CDC3A; Fri, 14 Aug 2009 03:36:07 +0800 (CST) X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at geekcn.org Received: from tarsier.geekcn.org ([211.166.10.233]) by localhost (mail.geekcn.org [211.166.10.233]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id 2PP6TaWnu51V; Fri, 14 Aug 2009 03:35:08 +0800 (CST) Received: from charlie.delphij.net (adsl-76-237-33-62.dsl.pltn13.sbcglobal.net [76.237.33.62]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by tarsier.geekcn.org (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 02BC955CDC34; Fri, 14 Aug 2009 03:35:01 +0800 (CST) DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; s=default; d=delphij.net; c=nofws; q=dns; h=message-id:date:from:reply-to:organization:user-agent: mime-version:to:cc:subject:references:in-reply-to: x-enigmail-version:openpgp:content-type:content-transfer-encoding; b=brxdwMDRrdbPgNvKGoxjEPiEUWmPskTTl87dMmpWaXLb2x2Uh4tUT7xfTd25qQTZl P6FxJ9Q0w4Rd/r7sbW3hQ== Message-ID: <4A846AD3.3080301@delphij.net> Date: Thu, 13 Aug 2009 12:34:43 -0700 From: Xin LI Organization: The FreeBSD Project User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.22 (X11/20090803) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: "Bjoern A. Zeeb" References: <4A83EEA8.5080202@delphij.net> <4A840DA1.600@yandex.ru> <4A844FF2.9000307@elischer.org> <20090813182918.S93661@maildrop.int.zabbadoz.net> In-Reply-To: <20090813182918.S93661@maildrop.int.zabbadoz.net> X-Enigmail-Version: 0.96.0 OpenPGP: id=18EDEBA0; url=http://www.delphij.net/delphij.asc Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: freebsd-net@freebsd.org, "Andrey V. Elsukov" , d@delphij.net, Julian Elischer Subject: Re: RFC: interface description X-BeenThere: freebsd-net@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: d@delphij.net List-Id: Networking and TCP/IP with FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 13 Aug 2009 19:36:09 -0000 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hi, Bjoern A. Zeeb wrote: > On Thu, 13 Aug 2009, Julian Elischer wrote: > >> Andrey V. Elsukov wrote: >>> Xin LI wrote: >>>> While playing with some OpenBSD installation I found that they have an >>>> interesting feature - adding description to a NIC. This is useful for >>>> system administrators to "tag" the interface, also, the ladvd program >>>> has a feature to use the SIOCSIFDESCR ioctl to document the remote CDP >>> >>> Something similar was rejected at least two times :) >>> >>> http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=kern/83622 >>> http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=kern/110720 >> >> not rejected.. >> >> suffered from lack of enthusiasm maybe. > > My point has always been - if I have to add/do an ioctl I can always also > use a library call that will read it from a .txt, .xml, .db file > or whatever and I don't have to go to the kernel, handle all the > string length problems there, ... especially as the kernel cannot do > anything with that string. I have also received some private e-mail regarding this, and I think that would be more sensible (better flexibility, and of course, a better chance that we can MFC it since it won't change kernel ABI). The only question I have would be, that is it possible to uniquely identify a NIC without assistance from kernel? For instance, one can change an interface from being called "em0" to "eth0" and from "bge0" to "em0". It's easy to track this information through ifconfig(8) with a callback, clean up the file upon restart, but we can not prevent other programs from calling IOCSIFNAME on the interface. Any idea for this? Cheers, - -- Xin LI http://www.delphij.net/ FreeBSD - The Power to Serve! -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.12 (FreeBSD) iEYEARECAAYFAkqEatIACgkQi+vbBBjt66Ah7gCgsv2O9FpF+fAbIPJqkICWkC+I HmYAoK4GmPynk4qh2FL2CnJY12MOBzEB =MG3y -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----