On Mon, 9 Nov 1998, phil freeman wrote:

> why so many network interfaces? are all these compiled into the kernel?
> any way i could delete them ? or would that be naughty... i think i only
> need the first three....

They are all configured into the kernel, and deleting them would require
re-compiling the kernel. If you're not using ppp or slip, then you
definitly don't need any of the ppp's nor the sl's. The strip driver is
for a ricochet (sp?) modem, and the tun interface is a connection point
for a tunnel driver. There probably are 4 for symmetry.

Having them around does no real harm, other than clutter up the ifconfig
messages. They do take up some space, so rebuilding would trim the kernel
down some. Deleting all of the other, not attached drivers would give you
more of a space win, though.

> <elektron@halo:~>ifconfig -a
> de0: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,NOTRAILERS,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu
> 1500
>         address: 00:00:f6:25:2e:19
>         media: Ethernet autoselect (10baseT)
>         status: active
>         inet XX.XXX.XXX.XXX netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 255.255.255.255
> ep0: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,NOTRAILERS,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu
> 1500
>         address: 00:a4:2f:bc:10:1c
>         media: Ethernet 10baseT
>         status: active
>         inet 172.16.2.1 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 172.16.2.255
> lo0: flags=8009<UP,LOOPBACK,MULTICAST> mtu 33200
>         inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 0xff000000 
> ppp0: flags=8010<POINTOPOINT,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
> ppp1: flags=8010<POINTOPOINT,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
> ppp2: flags=8010<POINTOPOINT,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
> ppp3: flags=8010<POINTOPOINT,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
> sl0: flags=c010<POINTOPOINT,LINK2,MULTICAST> mtu 296
> sl1: flags=c010<POINTOPOINT,LINK2,MULTICAST> mtu 296
> sl2: flags=c010<POINTOPOINT,LINK2,MULTICAST> mtu 296
> sl3: flags=c010<POINTOPOINT,LINK2,MULTICAST> mtu 296
> strip0: flags=0<> mtu 1100
> strip1: flags=0<> mtu 1100
> strip2: flags=0<> mtu 1100
> strip3: flags=0<> mtu 1100
> tun0: flags=10<POINTOPOINT> mtu 1500
> tun1: flags=10<POINTOPOINT> mtu 1500
> tun2: flags=10<POINTOPOINT> mtu 1500
> tun3: flags=10<POINTOPOINT> mtu 1500
>