Re: Specifying names for tap interfaces

[Jean-Yves Migeon <jeanyves.migeon%free.fr@localhost>]

On 23.06.2012 15:51, Darren Reed wrote:
> Linux's method associates names by driver type (eth0, eth1, etc).

It's more complicated than that. Nowadays it uses udev to generate
device names, each distros having their own set of rules. Persistence in
setups where the MAC address is randomly allocated (very frequent with
VPS) caused all sort of misconfiguration issues: rebooting the VM moved
eth0 to eth1/2/3, ... causing havoc in network scripts.

> HP-UX uses a similar approach with "lan0", etc.
> Solaris (from 11 onwards) uses a more neutral name with "net0"
> being the first interface, "net1", etc.
> 
> None of the above use labels or create extra complications
> in order to deliver user-friendly names,

There's a difference between user-friendly names and useful ones. The
situation described above is one that never happened in NetBSD because
autoconf created the interfaces in the same order they appeared in XenStore.

If we ever have to go down that route, NetBSD would have to make
autoconf machinery more dynamic and have a userland subsystem (maybe
like udev/devfs) react to locators, and name the devices accordingly. No
small feat, and even that has its own share of problems too.

-- 
Jean-Yves Migeon
jeanyves.migeon%free.fr@localhost