On Sun, 9 Jul 2000, Mason Loring Bliss wrote:

# Date: Sun, 9 Jul 2000 22:19:26 -0400
# From: Mason Loring Bliss <mason@acheron.middleboro.ma.us>
# To: tech-userlevel@netbsd.org
# Subject: /etc/ethers versus arp?
# 
# What out there uses /etc/ethers, other than rarpd(8)? Would it be worth
# considering munging either the format of /etc/ethers or the requirements
# of arp(8) so that data need not be duplicated? Other than the [temp]
# and [pub] bits, what arp(8) wants is almost identical to /etc/ethers,
# with the ordering switched. I run rarpd and I'm going to start nailing
# down MAC addresses with arp(8), and it would make sense to not have the
# same data in two files.

Two files?

So far, there's only one: /etc/ethers, which holds ether information.
The kernel arp table gathers information established by connections
to other machines.  But, then, you knew that!

Anyway, perhaps arp should be munged to accept an arg which would allow
it to read /etc/ethers.


# 
# 


				--*greywolf;
--
BSD: priapic OS