freebsd stable - Jun 2009 - On the topic of network_interfaces, optional full automatic renaming of interfaces

Hi lists,

Now the topic of network_interfaces has been mentioned, and the freeze  
for 8-stable is near I wonder if there is enough interest in the  
following feature to be included:

http://ruben.is.verweg.com/stuff/freebsd/ifrename/

There is some dust there in that directory (It works, but is nowhere  
finished yet), but basically this early rc.d script takes the  
functionality of ifconfig_XXX_name a step further and enables optional  
automatic renaming of all ethernet capable interfaces, and enumerate  
them in the order probed by the kernel.

A possible usage scenario is where you do massive imaging of a freebsd  
installation in where you don't know beforehand it will end up on  
hardware that has Broadcom or Intel NICs but it is for certain the  
cable will be connected to the first interface available and the same  
interface name can be referenced throughout all configuration files  
that need it (pf.conf, rc.conf(.local), /etc/rc.conf.d/network )

An other application usage is nailing down interface names using  
ethernet address, either because of correcting "mistakes" in the  
hardware (e.g. some Dell PowerEdges have the port labelled first to be  
probed as second and vice versa) or the necessity to only allow that  
interface to exist if it's MAC is the one that was configured (because  
of switch port ACL's)

Regards,
	Ruben