> How is it a bad thing? The format of /etc/ethers is not changing in
> meaning or form, and if you're going to use "arp -F" you're hopefully
> aware of what you're doing and why... I'm not absolutely desperate for
> the change, but I'm curious as to why it's seen as such an evil thing.
> Maybe I'm missing out on some common but funky use of /etc/ethers, but
> it seems logical and natural.

Right now /etc/ethers is only used to map between ether addresses and host
names.  After your suggested change it will also be used to populate the arp
table if you run "arp -F".  What if I want to have many mappings in
/etc/ethers but don't want an entry in my arp table for each mapping?  What
if I don't want to use DNS host names in /etc/ethers but host names from
other protocols?

    christian