Re: Specifying names for tap interfaces

[Martin Husemann <martin%duskware.de@localhost>]

On Wed, Jun 20, 2012 at 01:59:55AM +0200, Jean-Yves Migeon wrote:
> This needs some thought regarding the cleanliness of the API, but I
> would do it through properties, just for reusability (instead of rolling
> out your own API).

I disagree - wether there should be an api to set interface names to arbitrary
strings, or give interface names an arbitrary alias, or have a mapping layer
that refers via arbitrary names to network devices, is completely orthogonal
to the issue at hand. This needs *a lot* more design work.

However, there already is a perfectly working api to create tap interfaces
at will with a consistent number: ioctl(SIOCIFCREATE,...) and then open
the corresponding /dev/tapN. There is no need to fork ifconfig or anything
fancy.

Xen should just use this and create reliable/persistent mappings of
domUs to tapNs.

Martin