Re: Specifying names for tap interfaces

[Roger Pau Monné <roger.pau%entel.upc.edu@localhost>]

On Thu, Jun 21, 2012 at 3:12 AM, Darren Reed <darrenr%netbsd.org@localhost> 
wrote:
>>> Say I give fxp0 an alias of net0 and I then do
>>> "ifconfig net0 1.2.3.4". Now if I do "ifconfig net0" that
>>> IP address will show up as assigned to it. But if I do
>>> "netstat -nrf inet", net0 is nowhere to be seen. Why?
>>
>> You will get an error when doing an ifconfig net0, something like
>> ifconfig <keywork>:net0 should be used, to clearly differentiate
>> between real interfaces an aliases. So if you use the alias to
>> configure it you should be aware that it is an alias (or an
>> alternative name, since alias has other meaning in network
>> terminology).
>
> If I can't use it with tools like ifconfig then what
> is the point of having the alternative name at all?

You can use it with all the tools, but you need to know it's an
alternative name, so a keyword must be used to differentiate it from
physical interfaces. I think this prevents confusion, since there's a
clear difference between a real interface, and an "alias" or
"alternative name" of an interface.

> A name that can be used "some of the time" isn't really
> very useful and will create confusion with users.