On Fri, 13 Apr 2007, Douglas Allan Tutty wrote:

> I'm learning NetBSD (from Debian), doing a test install on an old 171 MB
> drive.  
> 
> Reading the guide, there appear to be two ways to configure networking:
> 
> 	put things like hostname and ifconfig in rc.conf
> 
> 	put things in separate files like /etc/myname, /etc/ifconfig.xxx
> 
> I'm wondering why there are two different ways and the pros and cons of
> choosing either.  Is one historical and the other more recent?

Yes, the /etc/ifconfig.xxx and /etc/myname are historical. (And before 
that also had /etc/hostname.xxx.)

Some admins like to keep configs in one place like rc.conf while others 
like the flexibility of different files.

Also /etc/ifconfig.xxN for many aliases (many lines) may be more 
convenient than using ifaliases_xxx variable.

Welcome to NetBSD!

  Jeremy C. Reed