Howto rename an interface

[Brooks Davis]

On Sat, May 03, 2003 at 03:47:34PM +0200, Vincent Jardin wrote:
> I would like to rename the network interfaces. More particularly, I would like 
> to control the numbers in the name and to remove the constraints.
> 
> For example, what are the issues about renaming my 'vr0' interface to eth1-3 
> or DSL-WAN that does not have a ifunit within its name ?
> 
> I think about the following issues, what am I forgetting ?
>   - update all the sockaddr_dl
>   - many drivers, in fact all of them, log with %s%d, ifname, ifunit
>   - (add a message on the routing socket)

Many issues are resolved by moving from if_name and if_unit to if_xname
in ifnet.  I've got a patch for that, but due to lack of time to deal
with the issues involved in the ABI change I don't think I'll get it
in to 5.x.  It doesn't deal with sockaddr_dl or routing sockets, but
it does clean up most uses if interface names.

I did take a shot at interface renaming, but didn't quite get it right
the first try.  I was looking at what I did wrong a little while ago and
I don't think renaming is all that difficult once you kill off if_name
and if_unit.  It's on my todo list, but I think it's a 6.x feature at
this point.

-- Brooks

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