kern/55917: tun# devices cannot be created in 4.8-STABLE

[Jukka A. Ukkonen]

The following reply was made to PR kern/55917; it has been noted by GNATS.

From: "Jukka A. Ukkonen" <ext-Jukka.Ukkonen at nokia.com>
To: freebsd-gnats-submit at freebsd.org
Cc: jau at mawit.com
Subject: Re: kern/55917: tun# devices cannot be created in 4.8-STABLE
Date: Mon, 25 Aug 2003 17:20:41 +0300

 	Aha!! - This was not properly documented!
 
 	A normal user cannot echo or cat anything to /dev/tun#
 	(which seems to be expected).
 	For root it works and the interfaces promptly appear
 	also in the ifconfig list. Because there is the create
 	parameter for ifconfig and other dynamically instantiated
 	interfaces obey this method, it would be the natural way
 	to create an interface and set its address, netmask, etc.
 	also for the tun driver.
 
 	This starts to look much more like two separate issues.
 	Partly this falls back to sloppy documentation instead
 	of a software bug. OTOH it would be a good idea to add
 	support for the create ioctl to the tun driver to make
 	it work the same way as all the other drivers which are
 	instantiated as needed.
 
 	The manual pages do not even hint to the fact that the
 	tun# interfaces cannot be created with ifconfig at the
 	moment. Neither is there any hint that the interface is
 	created when the control device is opened.
 
 	Too bad I am writing this exactly the day when the freeze
 	period for 4.9 is supposed to begin. I guess now there
 	is no chance to get extended ioctl support or manual page
 	changes done before 4.9 goes out.
 
 -- 
 	Cheers,
 		// jau
 
 	A computer, to print out a fact,
 	will divide, multiply, and subtract.
 	But this output can be
 	no more than debris,
 	if the input was short of exact.
 			-- Gigo