This reminds me of something I've been meaning to ask about.

Is there a good way to update /etc without manually having to check each
file and patch the new ones so that they match the functionality of the
old ones? 

I just did this about a month ago, and while I found the changes worth the 
effort, doing it on a regular basis makes me twitch.

Could you tar up just the changes so that it would be easier to install
them?

Brad

> 
> I've just committed a significant change to the way /etc/netstart
> works.
> 
> We no longer use /etc/hostname.xxN files -- we now use /etc/ifconfig.xxN
> files. These files aren't special format the way the old hostname
> files were -- they are simply lists of arguments for ifconfig, as in
> 
> 	inet foo.bar.com netmask 0xffffff00 media UTP
> 
> Note that they can also be multiple lines long, so you can put in
> configuration information for multiple types of networks at once --
> which will be useful once the IPv6 and other support goes in.
> 
> A new variable has been added to /etc/rc.conf, called
> "net_interfaces"; if set to "NO", no network interfaces are
> configured. If set to "DEFAULT", the network interfaces configured are
> generated via "ifconfig -l". If set to a list, as in
> 
> 	net_interfaces="de0 de1"
> 
> only those interfaces are configured.
> 
> Lastly, you may choose to add variables of the form "ifconfig_xxN" to
> your rc.conf instead of having /etc/ifconfig.xxN files -- each of
> these lines is treated as though it were the first line of a
> /etc/ifconfig.xxN file.
> 
> Although this sounds complicated (probably because we've provided too
> many options on how to configure things), it should, in fact, simplify
> configuration. Right now, its impossible to remember the format of
> a /etc/hostname.xxN file without reading netstart -- now, the format
> is trivial.
> 
> Enjoy!
> 
> Perry
>