> We feel rather strongly that the GNU inetutils ifconfig should either
> be renamed, or made to be command-line compatible with ifconfig
> programs that have been in use for decades on Unix systems.
ifconfig has never had a standard command line syntax across any UNIX
system; so each system implemented their own whacky way of doing
things. BSDs ifconfig is not the same as one on Solaris, or HPUX; and
Ultrix probobly has something peculiar as well.
Renaming ifconfig to something else won't happen though, if it is
incompatible with some system then it has to be fixed.
You wrote that it was not compatible with BSD, GNU/Linux, Solaris, and
some other systems, could you show us how exactly it is not compatible
with those? ifconfig changes behaviour depending on which platform it
is compiled to so that it behaves as close as posible to the hosts
original ifconfig.
It should definitely be command-line compatible with the
traditional ifconfig syntax and every effort has been made to make
it so. If it is not, it is a bug and that should be fixed.
Unfortunately, your message gives us no clue as to what was
actually wrong with ifconfig on that system. Please try to supply
the following information:
1. How was it invoked? A compete command line, please.
2. Did it display any diagnostic message. If so,
what exactly did it display?
3. What was its exit code?
4. Have any patches been applied by Ubuntu?
