Cathy Zhou writes: > >Provide the capability, and it will be abused. > > > > > Well, I don't know what we can do if privileged users do such things > only to confuse themselves.
I don't think it'd be a bad idea at all to have a document that describes some suggested usages and some things that ought to be avoided. Perhaps it could focused on particular tasks: "using vanity naming with Zones," "vanity naming with DR," "vanity naming in clusters," and so on. This should probably go into a blueprint or the administrator's guide. I agree that we're potentially handing people a lot of new rope. If we know or find out any hazards, write them down. > How to associate configuration with the alias? Does that mean > appliations will then access the link by opening the alias instead of > the link name? I guess the alias should be in the different namespace > from the link name. So that the open() API needs to indicate somehow > that it is openning an alias, not a link name? I might miss something > but I don't see how it going to work. There are at least two ways to do this. The one you're doing now effectively _is_ that sort of alias -- yet another device node in the tree somewhere that's named by the user. Another way to do it is to provide a new feature that's analogous to the ifAlias property in RFC 2863 (Interfaces MIB). This doesn't involve new device nodes or even potentially any kernel code. Instead, you just provide a way for the administrator to assign and retrieve an arbitrary string (e.g., "third wire from left" or "uplink to transit") on a per-interface basis. This allows administrators to assign meaningful notes on interfaces -- more so than can be jammed into the rather restrictive IP interface naming conventions -- and gets out of the way of low-level applications. Applications that need to look up or use these new strings will themselves need to iterate over the system's interfaces in the usual way. This is extremely useful for GUIs and the like. It's a requirement if you want to support the Standards-Track MIBs. It's a common feature and requirement for telecommunications gear. The downside is that "simple" operations, such as netstat, snoop, and ifconfig, see no obvious benefit. They're most likely still stuck in the world of e1000g0 and hme5. And thus DR and Zones probably become no easier to use. I talked at some length with meem about this a long time ago. The short answer is that if you have a requirement to make the command line tools easier and friendlier to use, then a high-level ifAlias feature won't really get you there. It'd still be nice to have, but it's not the same thing. -- James Carlson, KISS Network <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sun Microsystems / 1 Network Drive 71.232W Vox +1 781 442 2084 MS UBUR02-212 / Burlington MA 01803-2757 42.496N Fax +1 781 442 1677 _______________________________________________ networking-discuss mailing list [email protected]
