John, I don't want to argue too much on this but I'd also like the opinion of the big heads in MySQL
I think there's no grey area here. An interface is an interface and can be of any type and supporting any protocol(TCP/IP on ethernet card, UDP idem. DSL on WAN card, PPP on POTS modem) A port is related ONLY to the TCP/IP protocol(in this case) Moreover, are all the *nix systems wrong? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [c...@terramia ~]$ man ifconfig IFCONFIG(8) Linux Programmer's Manual IFCONFIG(8) NAME ifconfig - configure a network interface SYNOPSIS ifconfig [interface] ifconfig interface [aftype] options | address ... ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So, let's see what a 'network interface' is: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [c...@terramia ~]$ /sbin/ifconfig eth0 eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:1C:23:3F:CB:C0 inet addr:10.xxx.xxx.xxx Bcast:10.xxx.xxx.xxx Mask:255.255.255.0 inet6 addr: fe80::21c:23ff:fe3f:cbc0/64 Scope:Link UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:4057947 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:3932495 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 RX bytes:851379513 (811.9 MiB) TX bytes:1896970616 (1.7 GiB) Interrupt:177 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Aren't we supposed to see just a port number here? Cheers Claudio 2009/2/5 John Daisley <john.dais...@mypostoffice.co.uk> > An interface by definition is a point of interconnection. > > Maybe its a bit of a grey area where the interpretation can be different > depending on whether you think in terms of hardware or software. > > Its the port which is used to communicate with the MySQL (or indeed any > other) server software so therefore for the server software (but maybe not > the physical hardware) its the port which is the point of interconnection > (the network interface). > > For me the book is correct but I can see where confusion could occur. > > John > > > Hi Claudio, > > > > I don't think its your English, I agree with you that its not just > > confusing it is wrong. > > > > "Each server must have its own network interface" > > > > At least for my 10 years experience in IT and UNIX I would understand > > network interface as physical network interface unless specified as > > otherwise. Maybe the MySQL community has a differenet opinion :P > > > > > > > > ;) > > > > cheers Andy. > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------- > > This message was sent using IMP, the Internet Messaging Program. > > > > > > -- > > MySQL General Mailing List > > For list archives: http://lists.mysql.com/mysql > > To unsubscribe: > > http://lists.mysql.com/mysql?unsub=john.dais...@butterflysystems.co.uk > > > > > > ______________________________________________ > > This email has been scanned by Netintelligence > > http://www.netintelligence.com/email > > > > > > >