For what it's worth, FreeBSD does the same thing for "ifconfig -a"
as it does for "ifconfig".

Its man page says:  "When no arguments are given, -a is implied."

I like that.

-Mike


On Mon, 30 Apr 2001, Lucio De Re wrote:

> Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2001 06:49:13 +0200
> From: Lucio De Re <lucio@proxima.alt.za>
> To: tech-net@netbsd.org
> Subject: Re: always print IPv4 alias addresses
>
> On Sun, Apr 29, 2001 at 05:42:27PM -0400, John Hawkinson wrote:
> >
> > > Maybe we can invert the meaning of -A to *not* print aliases ?
> >
> > That clearly violates the principal of least surprise. Choose
> > another option letter, please.
> >
> It's always bothered me that a plain ifconfig (no options) returns an
> error, where it could oh so easily perform the "-a" function (the
> documentation is absurd enough to claim that "-a" is a special
> interface name :-(
>
> Perhaps we can let "-a" mean something slightly different from the
> total absence of options, with the aliases as a primary difference?
>
> ++L