ifconfig(8) syntax intuitiveness

[Joseph Garcia]

Greetings.

I just wanted to bounce some ideas off of you guys. It?s petty stuff,
but it?s usability feedback nonetheless.

First let me start off by quoting the ifcconfig(8) man page:

"The ifconfig utility is used to assign an address to a network
interface and/or configure network interface parameters.  The ifconfig
utility must be used at boot time to define the network address of each
interface present on a machine; it may also be used at a later time to
redefine an interface's address or other operating parameters."

I was using ifconfig when it occurred to me how non-intuitive it is
having to use 255.255.255.255 as the netmask when adding an address
that is on the same subnet as an address already on the interface. For
example, if you already have 192.168.0.1/24 on fxp0, then you should be
able to add the following address with this command:

	ifconfig fxp0 add 192.168.0.2 netmask 255.255.255.0

instead of:

	ifconfig fxp0 add 192.168.0.2 netmask 255.255.255.255

The latter just doesn't seem very intuitive, because 255.255.255.255 is
generally used as a netmask in point-to-point connections, where the
other endpoint must be configured as well.

This is actually a gripe I had with ifconfig(8) for many years but just
dealt with it. I hear this is a FreeBSD-ism which is not present in
NetBSD. I can't confirm that since I don't use NetBSD. Perhaps someone,
far more talented than I, can fix this to work in a more intuitive way.

I also understand that ?alias? is the same thing as ?add? and ??alias?
is the same thing as ?delete?. Personally, I never really did like the
alias/-alias commands because they didn?t seem like the right verb to
be using for the type of action that I was doing. I thought, ?I?m not
aliasing an address to the interface. I?m adding it to the interface.?
Actually, this is fine the way it is because people can use what they
like. Although, I do like the verb "remove" better than "delete".
Again, that's because I felt that I was "removing" an address from an
interface and not "deleting" an address.

Again, these are just ideas to make ifconfig(8) more intuitive and a
bit more user friendly. Any opinions on these issues? I know they're
small isssues, but I feel that any steps to making Unix utilities more
intuitive and user friendly without compromising security and features
is a step in the right direction.

Joseph Garcia

P.S. I'm not subscribed to the list, but I'll read all the replies in
the archive which is how I usually catch up on everything DrgaonFlyBSD.

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