Re: Interface description support

[Manuel Bouyer <bouyer%antioche.eu.org@localhost>]

On Mon, Jun 24, 2019 at 09:56:35PM -0000, Michael van Elst wrote:
> ef%math.uni-bonn.de@localhost (Edgar =?iso-8859-1?B?RnXf?=) writes:
> 
> >Or is there an argument that descriptions ought to be able to look like names?
> 
> These are not really descriptions but aliases and people like to
> use them as such. If you allow arbitrary strings (even with special
> characters, whitespace or Unicode) then you need to adapt the syntax
> of configuration files that include interface names. It's easier
> to restrict such aliases to common identifiers as this is what
> parsers expect.
> 
> IMHO such functionality doesn't belong into the kernel, it's much easier
> to have a configuration syntax with variables or macros to achieve hte
> same.

Exept it would make it harder to use in e.g. packet filters.
The interface may not exist when the packet filter rule file is parsed
(e.g. in a Xen dom0)

-- 
Manuel Bouyer <bouyer%antioche.eu.org@localhost>
     NetBSD: 26 ans d'experience feront toujours la difference
--