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From: Darren Pilgrim <darren.pilgrim@bitfreak.org>
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To: Mike Meyer <mwm-keyword-freebsdhackers.102a7e@mired.org>
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Cc: Scott Long <scottl@samsco.org>, hackers@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: Using any network interface whatsoever
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Mike Meyer wrote:
> If I do care - for instance, I want to distinguish
> between the ethernet interface that's on the internet and the one
> that's on my LAN, or I want root to be on the disk with the root file
> system on it - then this is a PITA, because every time I add hardware
> to the system, or re-arrange the cards in the cage, or similar things,
> I risk breaking the system configuration. If the device names are
> completely determined by the hardware settings, then this doesn't
> happen.

I wrote some add-on bits for /etc/rc.network in 4.x that compares the link 
addresses of attached network interfaces to a list of link addresses, then 
sets ifconfig_ifN* variables accordingly before rc.network does anything. 
It provides a means of wiring IP addresses to physical ports in a way that 
gets around the problem of probe order.

If there's interest, I'll get to work on an rcNG version.