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Date: Mon, 12 Feb 2007 18:25:57 -0500
From: Kevin Way <kevin@insidesystems.net>
Organization: InsideSystems, Inc.
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Subject: Re: Desired behaviour of "ifconfig -alias"
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Oliver Fromme wrote:
> But you called it "confusing".  That's just your personal
> perception.  It doesn't mean it is confusing to everybody.
>   
If asked what -alias does, would you really reply "it removes the
primary IP,
while leaving the alias?"  Be honest here.

>  Also note that it doesn't hurt anybody.  

If you run RELENG_6_2, and a jail fails to start, this command is  called. 
And instead of unaliasing the jail's alias, it (because of a bug in the
shipped
rc.d scripts), it removes the primary IP.

So that is a real life, non-third-party incident, where a machine was
knocked
off-line unexpectedly, because of this behavior.  Sure, it didn't *hurt*
me,
but knocking a machine off-line is a pretty serious side effect,
especially when
it isn't documented.

Errors in the other direction are more likely to result in a machine
remaining
reachable.

Fortunately, it appears that a fairly strong consensus is appearing in
support
of an eventual refinement of this behavior.

Best Regards,
Kevin Way