Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2001 09:49:23 -0500 From: Andrew Hesford <ajh3@chmod.ath.cx> To: Michael Nottebrock <michaelnottebrock@gmx.net> Cc: Ted Mittelstaedt <tedm@toybox.placo.com>, michael@tenzo.com, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Naming ethernet NICs Message-ID: <20010411094923.A6049@cec.wustl.edu> In-Reply-To: <009701c0c288$cfc4dce0$0508a8c0@lofi.dyndns.org>; from michaelnottebrock@gmx.net on Wed, Apr 11, 2001 at 03:10:40PM %2B0200 References: <000e01c0c24a$9c9edfc0$1401a8c0@tedm.placo.com> <009701c0c288$cfc4dce0$0508a8c0@lofi.dyndns.org>
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On Wed, Apr 11, 2001 at 03:10:40PM +0200, Michael Nottebrock wrote: > One disadvantage of the BSD-type naming convention is that one does > end up putting rl0's, ed0's and the like into config-files or batches, > which have to be changed if the hardware changes, for example a > '/usr/local/sbin/dhcpd dc0' in /etc/rc.local or a 'set device > PPPoE:rl0' in /etc/ppp/ppp.conf, or (the most annoying) if you happen > to have lots of 'via <interface>' statements in your ipfw ruleset. After trying to use a Linux machine with two NICs for a router, let me tell you the benefits of the BSD system far outweigh this single drawback. One of the first problems with generic naming is that you have to remember what name belongs to what card; maybe not a problem if you are always tweaking them, but if you leave your box up for a long time and don't mess with the cards, it is easy to forget. Perhaps the biggest concern, however, was when I upgraded from kernel 2.2.x to 2.4. In the transition, the kernel changed the order in which the NIC drivers were loaded. For me, this meant that the names eth0 and eth1 swapped cards without telling me. This was particularly troublesome, because I had to frequently bounce back and forth between 2.2.x and 2.4-test when they broke new things that affected me. With the BSD system, names don't change unless you swap cards, which means you are ready for the change. It is always easy to fix naming discrepancies when you know they're coming; it is much harder to do so when problems have surprised you and you are angry about them. -- Andrew Hesford ajh3@chmod.ath.cx To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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