ifconfig(8) interface description field

[Gavin Atkinson]

On Tue, 2008-11-18 at 12:38 +0100, cpghost wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 18, 2008 at 10:34:24AM +0100, sthaug at nethelp.no wrote:
> > > >Oh yeah, since we're in wishful thinking mode, I want interface
> > > >descriptions too...
> > > 
> > > Have you looked at the 'name' and 'group' keywords in ifconfig(8)?
> > > If this isn't what you want, please expand on your wish.
> > 
> > It is not what I want.
> > 
> > On routers, switches and lots of other boxes from most vendors you can
> > associate a description string with each interface - where interface 
> > can be a physical port, or for instance a VLAN based interface. This
> > description string is useful to document things like
> > 
> > - what is the box at the other end of the cable connected to this port
> > - what is the port at the other end of the cable connected to this port
> > - what is the circuit id for the circuit this port is connected to
> > - what is this port used for
> > 
> > etc. Typical example, from one of our switches (Cisco syntax):
> > 
> > interface GigabitEthernet0/12
> >  description TO: fs1.td  ID: BTN-11510092  TXT: gi1/0/7 EoSDH 50 Mbps
> >  switchport trunk allowed vlan 123,770,1024,1500,1504,1528,1536
> > 
> > showing the first three points I mentioned above.
> > 
> > Such a description string is can normally be retrieved using SNMP.
> 
> Yes, that's a very useful addition. I'm administering a lot of Cisco
> boxes, and this desc field has been extremely useful over the years.
> 
> Maybe an ifi_desc field could be added to:
> 
>   /usr/src/sys/net/if.h:struct if_data
> 
> and some glue so that ifconfig(8) can read and write to it?
> How long should this field be at most?

Patches already existfor one method of implementing this, see PR
kern/83622.

Gavin