On Thu, Oct 28, 2021 at 04:53:39PM +1000, David Gwynne wrote: > > > > On 28 Oct 2021, at 15:35, Jason McIntyre <j...@kerhand.co.uk> wrote: > > > > On Thu, Oct 28, 2021 at 01:27:17PM +1000, David Gwynne wrote: > >> > >>> that strategy does rely on individual driver docs saying upfront that > >>> they can be created though, even if using create is not common. i wonder > >>> if > >>> ifconfig already knows what it can create, and could maybe be more > >>> helpful if "create" without an ifname gave a hint. > >> > >> dlg@rpi3b trees$ ifconfig -C > >> aggr bpe bridge carp egre enc eoip etherip gif gre lo mgre mpe mpip mpw > >> nvgre pair pflog pflow pfsync ppp pppoe svlan switch tap tpmr trunk tun > >> veb vether vlan vport vxlan wg > >> > >> the "interface can be created paragraph" is in most of the manpages for > >> these drivers, except for pair, pfsync, pppoe, and vether (and > >> veb/vport). some of them could be improved, eg, bpe and switch. > >> > > > > oops, missed that flag! > > maybe the doco for "create" in ifconfig.8 should refer back to it too. >
good idea - this fits in nicely with stuart's proposal to not list every device. > > > i had thought maybe if there was such an option, we wouldn;t need the > > "if can be created" blurb in every page. but i suppose we do need to say > > it somewhere. > > the driver manpages are in a weird place because they're supposed to be for > programmers, and the ifconfig manpage is for "operators". however, the driver > pages have the "theory of operation" for their interfaces. so you have the > high level theory in the driver manpage, the way 99% of use actually interact > with interfaces in ifconfig.8, and then you go back to the driver doco for > the low level programming detail. it's not the best sandwich. > yep. > > another issue is that the text is inconsistent across pages. > > yeah, but that can be fixed easily. > hopefully! anyway, here' my proposal following your and sthen's advice. ok? jmc Index: ifconfig.8 =================================================================== RCS file: /cvs/src/sbin/ifconfig/ifconfig.8,v retrieving revision 1.377 diff -u -p -r1.377 ifconfig.8 --- ifconfig.8 27 Oct 2021 06:36:51 -0000 1.377 +++ ifconfig.8 28 Oct 2021 14:41:06 -0000 @@ -177,42 +177,9 @@ network. The default broadcast address is the address with a host part of all 1's. .It Cm create Create the specified network pseudo-device. -At least the following devices can be created on demand: -.Pp -.Xr aggr 4 , -.Xr bpe 4 , -.Xr bridge 4 , -.Xr carp 4 , -.Xr egre 4 , -.Xr enc 4 , -.Xr eoip 4 , -.Xr etherip 4 , -.Xr gif 4 , -.Xr gre 4 , -.Xr lo 4 , -.Xr mgre 4 , -.Xr mpe 4 , -.Xr mpip 4 , -.Xr mpw 4 , -.Xr nvgre 4 , -.Xr pair 4 , -.Xr pflog 4 , -.Xr pflow 4 , -.Xr pfsync 4 , -.Xr ppp 4 , -.Xr pppoe 4 , -.Xr svlan 4 , -.Xr switch 4 , -.Xr tap 4 , -.Xr tpmr 4 , -.Xr trunk 4 , -.Xr tun 4 , -.Xr veb 4 , -.Xr vether 4 , -.Xr vlan 4 , -.Xr vport 4 , -.Xr vxlan 4 , -.Xr wg 4 +A list of devices which can be dynamically created may be shown with the +.Fl C +option. .It Cm debug Enable driver-dependent debugging code; usually, this turns on extra console error logging.
