> And I have to say, this is really really confusing for those who come 
 > from other Unixes and don't realise that "ifconfig" actually is 
 > pronounced as "ipconfig" on Solaris (and, as of snv, the word often 
 > pronounced as "ifconfig" is spelled "dl-adm" ;) ).

Correct :-)

 > So what exactly does 'bge0' mean? It seems to be shorthand for more than 
 > one thing, context depending:
 > 
 > - When dladm prints 'bge0', it really means '/dev/bge0'
 >    (notionally at least).

Actually, dladm has two separate notions of bge0 -- one at the device
layer, and one at the link layer.  After Clearview's Vanity Naming is
introduced, the device layer (show-phys) will remain "bge0" but the link
layer (show-link) will show whatever name the adminstrator has chosen, or
bge0 by default.  Note that if the administrator names an interface
"maint0", then that means they will still have /dev/bge0, but will also
have /dev/net/maint0 (/dev/net is where Clearview proposes to put the
vanity names for network devices).

 > - When ifconfig prints 'bge0', it really means '/dev/ipnet/bge0'.

That's one way to think about it -- but really, it represents whatever has
been plumbed as an IP interface.  Since the IP interface name is derived
from the link-layer name (when one exists), aforementioned vanity naming
will allow the administrator to have vanity names at this layer.

 > - When you plumb/unplumb bge0:n, it generally means just /that/ IP
 >    interface only
 >    (/dev/ipnet/bge0:n, notionally at least)

Right, it is a logical interface -- strictly an IP-layer concept that is
basically a shell around an IP address.

 > - Except for the special 0th logical interface 'bge0:0', which is also
 >    'bge0' - which will unplumb /all/ IP addresses (just as if it were
 >    referring notionally to the physical interface 'bge0').

Right.

 > Any more special cases?

Well, you could view IPMP as a special-case today, as it fuses together
one or more IP interfaces (but the representation will be changing as part
of the Clearview IPMP Rearchitecture).  I've got a document that describes
all of this stuff in a bit more detail, but it's not yet ready for
consumption.

-- 
meem
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