Date:        Tue, 8 Jul 2003 09:23:15 -0700
    From:        john heasley <heas@shrubbery.net>
    Message-ID:  <20030708162315.GA10382@shrubbery.net>

  | I asuume I have missed something?

I don't think so - the *BSD family have (forever) had the
"administratively up" flag from SNMP (in the form of IFF_UP)
but there has never been the "operationally up" status in
any form at all, which is a real pity.

As you point out, IFF_RUNNING is just an internal driver flag
that means whatever the driver wants it to me (often that some
resources have been allocated), and most probably shouldn't really
be exposed across the user/kernel API at all.

This is something that really needs fixing - even if to start with
it just means a new flag being defined to mean "interface operating"
and setting it in parallel with IFF_UP - drivers can then be enhanced
to operate it correctly (going up and down with detected link status
changes).

kre