Re: Insufficient documentation for configuring a ethernet device & /etc/network/interfaces
Hi
On Mon, 27 Mar 2000, Christian Meder wrote:
> That would be great. Documenters are always especially needed by the Debian
> project. Let us know if we can look over a first draft.
>
Well I am not that good a documenter, am basically a developer. However I can
try my best at documenting it. Heres a very primitive draft. Currently I don't
have a debian system at office, so I can clarify certain things only after
going home, so this document is buggy however this basically gives what and all
I want to put in the document.
P.S: sorry I forgot to cc it to debian-testing mailing list.
---------
Keep :-)
HanishKVC
http://HanishKVC.tripod.com/
interfaces(5) Linux File Format's Manual interfaces(5)
NAME
interfaces - the networking interfaces specification file
SYNOPSIS
interfaces
DESCRIPTION
/etc/network/interfaces is an ASCII file which defines the different
networking interfaces available in a debian system. This could be the
loopback interface or the ethernet interface or so.
FILE FORMAT
This file basically consists of many sections, with each section
corresponding to a specific interface in the system.
Each section starts with the interface declaration line which gives
a name to the interface and also specifies its type. Next its followed
by 0 or more lines which specify different options for that interface
like the ip_address or netmast and so on. Depending on the kind of
interface there could be some _required_ options, which one should
always specify Also there could be some _optional_ ones which one
may or may not specify as deemed fit.
Any given section will look like this
iface name_of_interface interface_type
option_for_this_interface
...
option_for_this_interface
The field descriptions are:
name_of_interface
the name of the interface like lo or eth0 or so.
interface_type
the type of the interface i.e whether its a loopback device
or a ethernet device or ppp or so
option_for_this_interface
this varies from one kind of interface to the other.
For example the loopback device requires no options.
Where as for a ethernet device one has to specify
the ip address & the netmask at the minimum, and can
also specify the gateway, the network and so if
required. Look at ifup(?) manpage for details
These options are ideally listed one below the other
in independent lines following the interface declaration.
EXAMPLES
(a) For a machine having loopback device it would be
# Loopback inteface specification
# Notice that this as no options
iface lo loopback
(b) For a machine having an ethernet card with static
ip address
# An Ethernet interface specification
# Note that here the address and netmask are compulsary
iface eth0 ethernet
address 192.168.1.100
netmask 255.255.255.0
(c) and so on
FILES
/etc/network/interfaces
SEE ALSO
ifconfig(1), ifup(1), ifdown(1), modconfig(1)
NOTES IN GENERAL
If you have any networking device, then see to it that the proper
driver is either built into your kernel or is loaded as a module
(using modconfig or conf.modules or using insmod or modprobe).
AUTHORS
ifup and ifdown author
ifconfig author
This document is written by Hanish Menon C <hanishkvc@hotmail.com>,
Bangalore, INDIA. If you find any errors or changes please don't
hesitate to notify me or any other concerned person so that we can
together keep this document updated.
Linux March 27 2000 1
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