How does /dev/pf get created?

[Gavin Spomer]

>>> David DeSimone <fox at verio.net> 01/28/08 3:50 PM >>>
Gavin Spomer <spomerg at cwu.EDU> wrote:
>
> Although it was new to me, a couple of quick glances at man pages and
> experiments produced a /dev/pf for me.
Can you tell us what it was that you changed?  Someone else may need to
know, someday.


   You're absolutely right. I guess I forgot my obligation in my excitement to go home yesterday. ;)

   Here's what I did:
      1. cp /etc/defaults/devfs.rules /etc/
      2. chmod u+w /etc/devfs.rules
      3. vi /etc/devfs.rules: Added "add path pf unhide" to the [devfsrules_unhide_basic=2] ruleset
      4. vi /etc/devfs.conf: Added "own pf root:wheel" and "perm pf 0660". *
      5. shutdown -r now

   * I don't know if my permissions/ownerships for /dev/pf are correct, but I looked at other devices and made a guess.
     Anyone know what they're supposed to be?

   Just noticed I don't have pflog or pfsync devices either, so I guess I'll create those too.


> One thing I really dig so far about pf versus the firewall I use on my
> SuSE machines (iptables), is that I don't have to reboot for changes
> to take effect.  Way happy about that!  :)
It has been a while since I worked with iptables, but I have NEVER had
to reboot in order to make changes to it.  That is just bizarre!


   I never took the time to actually write my own iptables rules, but SuSE has a built in mechanism that simplified it:
   SuSEfirewall2. Basically you just have a fairly simple config file to edit and SuSEconfig writes the rules for you.
   In the O-Reilly book Linux Server Security (2nd Edition), it says "... all you do is edit the file /etc/sysconfig/SUSEfirewall2 
   (in earlier versions of SUSE, /etc/rc.conf.d/firewall2.rc.config), run SUSEconfig, and reboot". So I've been doing it that way
   ever since. But after a quick Googling, it seems that maybe I don't have to reboot and can just run
   "/sbin/rcSuSEfirewall2 restart". Just an example of one of the times I wasn't very thorough in investigating something. ;)

   - Gavin