[PLUG] adding network name alias

[Ben Koenig]

They are trying to make sure that ethernet ports are predictably labeled.
This means they want to look at the back of the hardware and identify eth0
without the use of software. Most devices are assigned labels in linux as
they are found and the order in which they are found is often different
from how they are arranged on the computer.  There are also situations in
which the order can change after a reboot which throws a wrench into
everything.

The example of this is a server with 4 ethernet ports lined up in a row,
but when linux sees them in software the order gets jumbled. If you were
too boot up slackware on one of these servers you might see something like
this..
Port 1 - eth1
Port 2 - eth0
Port 3 - eth3
Port 4 - eth2

clearly the ethX names make no sense given the physical labeling on the
back panel of the server. As a system builder, you are supposed to take
extra steps to set things in stone but end users typically only have 1 or 2
ports so it doesn't matter.

It's just stupid because like Russel said it only affects a small portion
of the total linux user base and from what I'm reading their solution
doesn't even do anything useful because systemd is still going to provide
wildly different results from one system to the next. In fact, the only
real change here is a loss of portability which was the original gripe in
this thread. If Keith rewrites his scripts to use the 'enp2s0' naming
convention those scripts will fail if he moves to a system where the ports
show as "eno1".




On Mon, Feb 15, 2021 at 5:35 AM Rich Shepard <rshepard at appl-ecosys.com>
wrote:

> On Sun, 14 Feb 2021, Ben Koenig wrote:
>
> > Problem remains unsolved. Whoever funded the development of this feature
> > should probably ask for their money back. Unless of course their goal was
> > to destabilize the Linux platform, in which case, Good Job!
>
> Ben,
>
> As a curious non-computer professional I ask, what is the problem that this
> networking port numbering issue intends to solve?
>
> In my small network each desktop and laptop has a single Ethernet port and
> the switch and router have numbered ports. Where's the source of the
> unpredictability and why does it matter?
>
> Looking forward to learning,
>
> Rich
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