-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----


>>>>> "der" == der Mouse <mouse@Rodents.Montreal.QC.CA> writes:
    >>>> in which case the interface "name" and "address" (which have the
    >>>> same lifetime issues as the number)
    >>> I don't think so, not if numbers are assigned sequentually at boot
    >>> and never repeated.  In practice today, a 32-bit serial number will
    >>> never be repeated; a 64-bit probably will never be repeated for the
    >>> foreseeable lifetime of NetBSD.
    >> While this might be true,
    >> u_short if_index;               /* numeric abbreviation for this if */
    >> in practice today 16-bit serial numbers are repeated.

    der> They are?  I have trouble thinking of any situation not contrived for
    der> the purpose where 64K interface creates occur without an intervening
    der> reboot.  Where did you find such?  It's probably worth preserving as a
    der> stress-test case....

  Any box with a non-trivial network connection running PPPoE as termination
for dialup/DSL customers. An OC-3 worth of 1Mb/s channels is 100
channels. Average uptime for a Windoz box in use being two-three hours, 
that is 81 days of uptime.

  I know of vendors putting NetBSD in their systems that expect more than 81
days of uptime.

  Since these ABIs tend to be hard to change, please burn the 2 bytes and
make it u_int32_t.

]       ON HUMILITY: to err is human. To moo, bovine.           |  firewalls  [
]   Michael Richardson, Sandelman Software Works, Ottawa, ON    |net architect[
] mcr@sandelman.ottawa.on.ca http://www.sandelman.ottawa.on.ca/ |device driver[
] panic("Just another NetBSD/notebook using, kernel hacking, security guy");  [

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: 2.6.3ia
Charset: latin1
Comment: Finger me for keys

iQCVAwUBPEA7LYqHRg3pndX9AQG1QgP+LMfvb6USoE2mBPhe9NZ58TLMkUWZW2Tm
siqNFssU0880NDeXbWRpEkHe0nUAQhWWMECnSWQAmi5lG5RanI+JHlawlKJkvXE5
Plc/K6mfKnEvPJt+cylfUj7iRWToA9p6bF7JdIprR45AGrZ256e17KSsF7eAXfOD
CUMkHLmmifQ=
=6kei
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----