Re: [PATCH] Make ifcfg-eth* NM_CONTROLLED=no work without HWADDR by matching on device name

[Marc Herbert <Marc Herbert gmail com>]

>> The device name is relevant to every network configuration file, tool
>> or script ever written (except NM?). It is also what every system
>> administrator is used to deal with. I understand that NetworkManager
>> laudable goal is to get rid of all of these, making the "eth1" device
>> name truly irrelevant, but this it not going to happen overnight.
 
> It was a problem before NetworkManager was created, and a problem long
> after as well.  Udev makes the situation somewhat better by trying to
> map device names via MAC address, but sometimes that is still wrong or
> not possible to do.  NM simply makes the problem clear: that device
> names are *not* relevant across boots, because they are not stable
> across boots.

Not so long ago, in the pre-NM "past", the name "eth0" was (ab)used as
a useful and relatively stable abstraction for: "the wired network interface".

Of course using "eth0" is not rock-solid. It breaks from time to time,
like for instance when having several wired interfaces or a weird
driver. But still, it does the job for 99.9% of PCs. So it is
tremendously useful. And "stabilizing" the 0.1% is often doable.

This abstraction is useful when managing and _configuring_ a large
number of PCs, like for instance clusters, appliances, homogeneous
workstations, liveCDs, etc.

So, I guess the question is: is NetworkManager supposed to support
this abstraction in one way or the other? (I am talking about
actually configuring the interface, not just: "auto eth0").


Cheers,

Marc