interface(4tcp)
interface --
Internet network interface configuration parameters
Description
The /etc/confnet.d/inet/interface file is used to store network
interface parameters that are used at boot time.
Each line of data in the interface file
contains enough information to
configure an IP transport provider.
At boot time, this information is passed to
slink(1Mtcp)
and
ifconfig(1Mtcp)
by the script /etc/confnet.d/inet/config.boot.sh.
Files
/dev/ip-
/etc/confnet.d/inet/config.boot.sh-
/etc/confnet.d/netdrivers-
/etc/hosts-
/usr/bin/uname-
Usage
The interface file is maintained by running
netcfg(1M).
The format of the lines in the interface file is a collection of
colon (:) separated fields.
prefix:unit:address:device:ifconfig_opts:slink_opts
Each field and its defaults (if any) are defined as follows:
prefix-
Is an identifier for a driver's netstat (see
netstat(1Mtcp))
statistics.
Traditionally this value corresponds to the common name used for a
particular device.
This field cannot be null and it has no default.
unit-
Is the index per prefix type in the IP internal netstat
array, where zero is the first element's index.
This field should consist of only 0-9.
This field cannot be null and it has no default.
address-
Is used by ifconfig to initialize the transport provider.
This may be the Internet name from /etc/hosts (see
hosts(4tcp))
or an
address in Internet standard dot notation.
Null is expanded to the system nodename, obtained by searching
/etc/hosts for the /usr/bin/uname -n entry.
NOTE:
The system nodename should be used for only one interface line.
device-
Is the device node name of the transport provider.
It is allocated from available network devices listed in
/etc/confnet.d/netdrivers (see
netdrivers(4bnu))
through
netcfg(1M).
This field cannot be null and it has no default.
ifconfig_opts-
Is used to customize the ifconfig options used at
boot time and may contain any options defined on
ifconfig(1Mtcp).
The constructed command line takes the form:
ifconfig prefixunit converted_address ifconfig_opts up
The meanings of the arguments to ifconfig are as follows:
prefixunit-
The concatenation of prefix and unit.
prefixunit result may be used as the
interface parameter given to
ifconfig and netstat.
converted_address-
The /etc/hosts value for the address field.
ifconfig_opts-
This can be null and has no default, but it is traditionally
set to -trailers (needed by transport providers).
See
ifconfig(1Mtcp)
and
netcfg(1M).
ifconfig_opts is null when the transport provider is
lo (localhost in /etc/hosts).
localhost requires no additional ifconfig
options at boot time.
slink_opts-
slink_opts and the /etc/strcf file (see
strcf(4tcp))
are used by
slink to initialize the device
into the TCP/IP protocol stack.
slink_opts defines the strcf function
and its first arguments (it is not limited to one word).
add_interface is the default slink_opts value.
Additional arguments will be appended to slink_opts
to make the final form of the slink operation:
slink_opts ip device prefixunit
ip is an open file descriptor to /dev/ip, and
device and prefixunit are defined
in the current interface entry.
For a standard Ethernet board,
slink_opts may be null; the defaults
will take care of all arguments.
References
hosts(4tcp),
ifconfig(1Mtcp),
netcfg(1M),
netdrivers(4bnu),
netinfo(1Mbnu),
slink(1Mtcp),
strcf(4tcp)
Examples
The entry:
lo:0:localhost:/dev/loop:netmask 0xff000000:add_loop
from /etc/confnet.d/inet/interface generates the following line to
be used by slink:
slink_opts ip device prefixunit
The following ifconfig command would also be generated for boot time:
ifconfig lo0 127.0.0.1 netmask 0xff000000 up
Note that the netmask arguments are present only for the purpose of
this example.
© 2004 The SCO Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
UnixWare 7 Release 7.1.4 - 25 April 2004