Definition of interfaces in ifconfig

[Charles Howse]

Hello List,

When I do:
# ifconfig

I see the following interfaces listed:

tx0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
	inet 192.168.254.3 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.254.255
	inet6 fe80::2e0:29ff:fe11:ff8a%tx0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x1 
	ether 00:e0:29:11:ff:8a
	media: Ethernet autoselect (100baseTX <full-duplex>)
	status: active
lp0: flags=8810<POINTOPOINT,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
sl0: flags=c010<POINTOPOINT,LINK2,MULTICAST> mtu 552
faith0: flags=8002<BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
lo0: flags=8049<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 16384
	inet6 ::1 prefixlen 128 
	inet6 fe80::1%lo0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x5 
	inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 0xff000000 
ppp0: flags=8010<POINTOPOINT,MULTICAST> mtu 1500

I know tx0 is my one and only nic, we can keep it.
I assume lp0 is the parallel port, don't need it, don't plan to do any
printing from this machine.
I assume lo0 is the loopback interface, that's cool.
I know I don't need a PPP or SLIP interface, I have a LAN connection to
the Internet.

I've grepped LINT and GENERIC with no joy for the definitions, I've
Googled with no joy so far, there are no man pages for these devices,
where can I find out what they are?

I realize the only ones actually running are tx0 and lo0, but wouldn't
it be OK to remove the ones I'll never need?

Can I get rid of some of these guys?  How?



Thanks,
Charles