From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Apr 8 15:53:10 2011 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B1D7B1065679 for ; Fri, 8 Apr 2011 15:53:10 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from mwoliver@gmail.com) Received: from mail-vx0-f182.google.com (mail-vx0-f182.google.com [209.85.220.182]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6B83B8FC19 for ; Fri, 8 Apr 2011 15:53:10 +0000 (UTC) Received: by vxc34 with SMTP id 34so3477933vxc.13 for ; Fri, 08 Apr 2011 08:53:09 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:mime-version:in-reply-to:references:date :message-id:subject:from:to:cc:content-type; bh=YQmER1rgWHDIgbpDh8qZ06uy8hbGYqksVYdDVhWL6DY=; b=IbuWB6MfprNZu8541p6WBGNDYPrx0f/bdcOsBYerFzGAYkggdUq2qNssYxGdd1oA1T 0iFCvRQiIQdlh4T9SGYN0wYtlyC3KGpdYfqJjrhmLkTVwbh6ozfDVxy+hbNImoFq2VST PcAYMmTWcE/PQkuSEVGNRuYDT6khvRShNM950= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:in-reply-to:references:date:message-id:subject:from:to :cc:content-type; b=NSqfrTVOaw7kEU/jdTSlmCDqvYQlf1BoXki5e7LUj2X1LkXUlizG3ppIQhFEFDThwI Pp+wQ2NmkQ2yFj0YAuXpQA5SPqKKZFrOaPPUzpCzqMPlbMFTa6THEe1W6YaBLDHSybEQ gFDjWmMIXuNKIWbehky0knqVLZkF12g3gwOKc= MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.52.179.3 with SMTP id dc3mr3273465vdc.157.1302276239624; Fri, 08 Apr 2011 08:23:59 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.220.45.76 with HTTP; Fri, 8 Apr 2011 08:23:59 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <4D9EFAC6.4020906@lazybytes.org> References: <4D9EFAC6.4020906@lazybytes.org> Date: Fri, 8 Apr 2011 11:23:59 -0400 Message-ID: From: Mike Oliver To: Sergey Vinogradov Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Cc: FreeBSD Hackers Subject: Re: ifconfig output: ipv4 netmask format X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 08 Apr 2011 15:53:10 -0000 On Fri, Apr 8, 2011 at 08:08, Sergey Vinogradov wrote: > Hi, hackers. > I have a question: why ipv4 netmask is displayed by ifconfig in hex format? > Isn't dot-decimal notation more human-readable? Will the attached patch > break something in the very bad way? Who's using IPv4 anymore? ;-) Seriously though, if you give a small amount of time to learning the hex -> binary translations then you would see how convenient it is to use hex rather than decimal when representing what are ultimately binary numbers. See this blog entry by Jeff Doyle... http://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/how-are-your-hexadecimal-skills -- Mike Oliver, KT2T +1-863-738-2334 kt2t@arrl.net -or- mwoliver@gmail.com Twitter: @mwoliver