From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Apr 9 09:08:08 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: hackers@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4425216A422 for ; Sun, 9 Apr 2006 09:08:08 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from bms@spc.org) Received: from mindfull.spc.org (mindfull.spc.org [83.167.185.3]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 88F8443D46 for ; Sun, 9 Apr 2006 09:08:07 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from bms@spc.org) Received: from arginine.spc.org ([83.167.185.2]) by mindfull.spc.org with esmtps (TLSv1:AES256-SHA:256) (Exim 4.52) id 1FSVtp-0002iM-8Z; Sun, 09 Apr 2006 10:08:01 +0100 Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by arginine.spc.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D3A2D65499; Sun, 9 Apr 2006 10:07:58 +0100 (BST) Received: from arginine.spc.org ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (arginine.spc.org [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with LMTP id 61476-05; Sun, 9 Apr 2006 10:07:57 +0100 (BST) Received: by arginine.spc.org (Postfix, from userid 1078) id A10EF653F9; Sun, 9 Apr 2006 10:07:57 +0100 (BST) Date: Sun, 9 Apr 2006 10:07:57 +0100 From: Bruce M Simpson To: Mike Meyer Message-ID: <20060409090757.GW80492@spc.org> References: <20060407225742.GA21619@odin.ac.hmc.edu> <20060407230247.GH16344@submonkey.net> <4437C9F6.5000008@samsco.org> <17463.65076.117616.563302@bhuda.mired.org> <443811EF.2020509@samsco.org> <17464.8074.937742.701480@bhuda.mired.org> <44383346.2030207@samsco.org> <17464.16087.217524.843667@bhuda.mired.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <17464.16087.217524.843667@bhuda.mired.org> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.1i Organization: Incunabulum X-AntiAbuse: This header was added to track abuse, please include it with any abuse report X-AntiAbuse: Primary Hostname - mindfull.spc.org X-AntiAbuse: Original Domain - freebsd.org X-AntiAbuse: Originator/Caller UID/GID - [47 12] / [47 12] X-AntiAbuse: Sender Address Domain - spc.org X-Source: X-Source-Args: X-Source-Dir: Cc: Ceri Davies , Scott Long , hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Using any network interface whatsoever 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: Sun, 09 Apr 2006 09:08:08 -0000 Mike, Tell me about it, I know exactly what you mean! On Sat, Apr 08, 2006 at 06:53:11PM -0400, Mike Meyer wrote: > My question about labels for ethernet devices wasn't meant to be > rhetorical. Ethernet device names on Unix are pretty much > worthless. They tell you basically nothing about which device you've > got. On FreeBSD, different card types have different names, which is > better than nothing - but that's about all it's better than. We need > something akin to labels for ethernet devices. The LAN it's plugged > into is the equivalent of the data on the disk - but there's no > equivalent for the label. > > What do I want for that? I identify ethernet boards by which slot on > the back of the system I plug the cable into. Currently, I have to map > that to board types to and which board is plugged into which slot to > know which name to use. I want a name that tells me which slot I plug > a cable in to plug it into that interface. I investigated this problem when doing research on XORP. The behaviour you describe is a functional requirement for a router chassis. What it really comes down to is that one needs a PCI variant which supports what's known as 'geographical addressing', and for FreeBSD's device / ifnet framework to support naming cards according to the geographic i.e. physical address. If you look at the very bottom of the man page pci(9) you'll see I've left a footnote about this. Unfortunately the only systems which tend to implement this feature at the moment are CompactPCI based chassis systems. Although there is support for geographical addressing in a recent ACPI spec but as far as I know it may only really have made its way into blade systems. Hope this helps. Regards, BMS P.S. If etiquette were taken more seriously then society as a whole might function better -- I think of it as part of the 'operating system' of the human spirit!