>> Netstart.conf?   Why not rc.conf?   And why is it "complicated" to
>> do something like:
>> 
>> ifconfig_le0_1=inet 192.5.5.213 netmask 255.255.255.240 media UTP
>> ifconfig_le0_2=inet alias 128.45.1.17 netmask 255.255.255.0
>> ifconfig_le0_3=atalk <whatever>

>        This seems like a fairly workable idea.  However, I think there is
>something to be said for separating the configuration into several files.

Heck, yes.  I want to rdist /etc/rc.conf.  In a cluster of `identical'
machines that seems a perfectly reasonable thing to do, and I think
allowing for rdist'ing /etc/rc.conf should be a design goal for
NetBSD's startup configuration system.

That means providing a mechanism that lets ifconfig state *not* be in
/etc/rc.conf.  Do we really need two mechanisms for providing ifconfig
and default-route state?

>For one it makes it a lot easier to manage it: you can see at a glance
>what you've got configured.  It seems to make sense, if not to keep the
>ifconfig.* files, to at least have a separate conf file for each script
>that is run.  i.e. rc.conf configures stuff for the rc script, rc.local.conf
>for rc.local, netstart.conf for netstart. 

I genuinely don't understand this.  The various /etc/ifconfig.<ifN>
files *are* the configuration files for /etc/netstart, so we already
have separate config files for netstart.  The information in each of
those files is both host- and interface-specific; glomming them
together into one file doesn't seem to make much sense.

Perhaps the problem is that /etc/netstart is badly named.  IMHSO,
/etc/netstart should be renamed /etc/rc.if: it doesn't start the
network, it just configures interfaces up, and I'm crusty enough to
think those are different things.

I think a pretty good case could be made that the current /etc/rc.conf
should be renamed (or split into) /etc/net.conf or /etc/inet.conf; I
count five non-``network'' config flags -- savecore_flags, lkm_init,
ipfilter, update_flags, syslogd_flags -- and about 30 network-daemon flags.
(the exact numbers depend on how you count things like sendmail.)

When atalk (and IPX) arrive, I personally would much rather keep their
config info out of /etc/rc.conf, and put in a file of its own.  

I think a consistent *naming* scheme for the config files is more
important than having One Monster Config File for everything under the
sun: if 'grep <foobar> /etc/rc*.conf' always lets you find the config
info for <foobar>, it doesn't matter much if it's in one humungous
file or in half a dozen.

Chac,un a` son gou^t, though.